• Keraudren Extension 3D survey successfully acquired an additional ~2,600 km2 over the Bedout Basin
• This recent survey covers a significant number of exploration opportunities beyond the Dorado area
• Closer to the Dorado area are the Pavo-1 and Apus-1 exploration wells drilling late 2021 / early 2022

Carnarvon Petroleum today provides an update on its Bedout Basin acreage seismic acquisition and exploration drilling activities.

3D Seismic

The recently completed Keraudren Extension 3D seismic survey acquired ~2,600km² up to 28 July 2021. The survey acquired data over the southern portion of WA-436-P and the northern portion of WA-438-P.

This area contains a large seriatim of ~50 prospects and leads, many with stacked targets, in a diverse range of plays and with direct access to the interpreted hydrocarbon source kitchens.

The prospects and leads had previously been identified on 2D seismic data and are expected to be enhanced by the improved structural and stratigraphic images resulting from the 3D seismic technology.

Most of the identified plays are independent of the Dorado-style canyon-edge play, showing the depth of play quality in this already proven basin.

The Keraudren Extension 3D will allow the Joint Venture to better assess the geological risks and improve the volume estimates of this part of the portfolio.

Given the higher density of data, it is likely to also result in the identification of a greater number of prospects and leads.

The 21,652km² Bedout Basin acreage now has over two-thirds (68%) of its area covered with modern 3D seismic data.

Drilling

The Joint Venture operator, Santos, has taken delivery of the Noble ‘Tom Prosser’ jack-up drilling rig, which is expected to be mobilised to the Bedout Basin by late 2021 or early 2022 to drill the Pavo-1 and then Apus-1 exploration wells.

Both wells will be drilled in the southeastern play fairway, with the Apus and Pavo prospects having similar interpreted trap, source, seal and reservoir characteristics to Dorado.

The Pavo-1 well is planned to be drilled in WA-438-P (Carnarvon 30% interest) and targets mean recoverable volumes of 82 million barrels and 108 billion cubic feet of gas in the Caley Formation. The probability of geological success (Pg) is 34%. 

The Pavo-1 well will be followed by the Apus-1 well in the eastern area of WA-437-P. The Apus feature straddles the boundary of WA-437-P (Carnarvon 20% interest) and WA-438-P (Carnarvon 30% interest). Apus-1 has two target intervals, with mean recoverable volumes of 235 million barrels and 408 billion cubic feet of gas (combined in the Caley and Milne Formations) with a Pg of 23%.

Prospective Resources are the estimated quantities of petroleum that may potentially be recovered by the application of a future development project and may relate to undiscovered accumulations. These prospective resource estimates have an associated risk of discovery and risk of development. Further exploration and appraisal is required to determine the existence of a significant quantity of potentially moveable hydrocarbons.

Carnarvon Managing Director and CEO, Mr Adrian Cook, said:
“The Keraudren Extension 3D seismic survey covers an area that has held a great deal of interest within Carnarvon for quite some time. Now that the new data has been acquired, the next step is for it to be processed for interpretation.

We are looking forward to then incorporating the processed data into our already extensive database of the Bedout Basin and beginning to identify new targets for future drill programs in this area.

While all this seismic work is underway, we will be progressing towards drilling the Pavo-1 and Apus-1 exploration wells. These are large-volume targets, importantly located close to the proposed Dorado field facilities.

As announced recently, progress on the Dorado field development is on schedule, with FEED entry formally announced by the Joint Venture in June 2021.

I’m pleased to report that our work in the Bedout Basin continues, with a great deal of activity scheduled across longer dated opportunity identification, near term exploration drilling and Dorado development progress towards reaching a Final Investment Decision in mid 2022.”

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