PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos on Wednesday announced a significant discovery at the Pavo-1 exploration well, near its Dorado development, offshore Western Australia.
The well was drilled on the northern culmination of the greater Pavo structure and encountered a 60-m gross hydrocarbon column in the primary Caley member reservoir target.
Santos told shareholders that wireline data had confirmed 46 m of net oil pay, with an oil-water contact intersected at 3 004 m measured depth (MD). Excellent reservoir quality is interpreted from logs with 19% average porosity, permeabilities in the 100 to 1 000 millidarcy range and hydrocarbon saturations averaging 80%, similar to that encountered in the Dorado field.
A 2C contingent resource for the northern culmination is assessed at 43-million barrels of oil gross. The southern culmination has an additional best estimate P50 prospective resource of 40-million barrels of oil gross.
The result at Pavo-1 also significantly de-risks the hydrocarbon-bearing potential of the separate southern culmination of the greater Pavo structure.
Santos MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher described the Pavo discovery as a great result that could add further material value to the Dorado project through a potential low-cost tie-back to the proposed Dorado facility.
“The Pavo-1 success is expected to support a potential low-cost tie-back to the first phase of the proposed Dorado development, with Pavo north having an estimated breakeven cost of less than $10/bl, and future gas production from the Bedout basin providing a source of supply into our existing domestic gas infrastructure in Western Australia,” Gallagher said.
“With the global oil and gas markets seeing increased volatility, low-CO2 oil and gas resources at Dorado and Pavo add significantly to Australia’s national energy security. It is also very encouraging for the next exploration well in the current campaign, Apus-1, which offers another potential nearby low-cost tie-in opportunity to the Dorado development.
“The Pavo-1 well result also proves the petroleum system in the basin is effective over a greater area, de-risking a number of nearby low-cost opportunities.”