Strike-led JV unveils gas fairway with North Perth basin well

The 50-50 joint venture of South Australian explorer Strike Energy Ltd. and Aberdeen-based independent Warrego Energy Ltd. has confirmed another large natural gas discovery in its multireservoir West Erregulla-2 appraisal well in the onshore North Perth basin of Western Australia.

Strike, as operator, reported that the well has encountered a gross gas column at least 97 m thick in the Kingia formation. The lower section of the Kingia from 4,790 m onwards is made up of several high-quality clean sand units with thick blocky porosity development.

Strike said this 67-m section has high gas saturation throughout and has been interpreted through logs to have a net pay of 41 m and an average porosity of 14.3% peaking at 19%.

The well has not yet encountered a gas-water contact.

The find follows a recent discovery of a 74-m section of gross gas pay in the Wagina sandstone higher in the well at 4,106-4,180 m. The Wagina was slated as a secondary target (OGJ Online, Aug. 20, 2019).

Stuart Nicholls, Strike’s managing director, described the Kingia find as a truly exceptional outcome that exceeded the group’s expectations. He said the discovery appears to have higher reservoir quality than nearby Waitsia gas field.

“With West Erregulla now being one of the deepest wells ever drilled onshore Australia and finding such excellent quality sandstone reservoirs, the subsurface paradigms of the Perth basin are shifting,” Nicholls said.

“Strike believes it has unveiled a new conventional gas fairway, with these initial results validating our geological model. With gas discoveries in the Wagina and now the Kingia sandstones, the West Erregulla campaign is company-changing for Strike,” he added.

There also is potential for further discoveries as the well drills deeper to the underlying High Cliff sandstones that predrill interpretation show as displaying an even better anomaly than the Kingia.

Strike said the well will continue drilling to a nominal final depth of 5,200 m. This will be followed by wireline logging, side-wall coring, casing, and running of a production completion prior to a flow test program.