OilVoice - Portland Has Potential to Emerge as Southern Australia’s Next Major Hydrocarbon Province

Portland Has Potential to Emerge as Southern Australia’s Next Major Hydrocarbon Province

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

An area just west of Portland in Victoria has been described as having the potential to be the next major hydrocarbon province in the southern margins of Australia.

Addressing the second day in Melbourne today of the inaugural Paydirt 2008 Victoria Resources Conference, Essential Petroleum Resources Ltd’s Managing Director, Mr John Remfry, said the Discovery Bay High in the Otway Basin has the potential to host two trillion cubic feet of gas resource and up to two billion barrels of oil.

The High is partly an onshore play but primarily a large southwards stretching offshore footprint in the central area of the Otway Basin between Portland and Victoria’s South Australian sea border.

Mr Remfry says the Discovery Bay High has a simply profile and influence on its prospectivity as does the much smaller but prolific Pecten High in the Otway Basin, also a partly onshore but mainly offshore petroleum influence further to the east but just west of Port Campbell in Victoria.

“The Pecten High has already yielded in excess of 1.7 trillion cubic feet of gas,” Mr Remfry said.

“By comparison, the central part of the Discovery Bay High hosts a similar prospect and lead inventory to the Pecten High, ranging from small accumulations onshore to very large continental margins plays offshore.

“This makes for a compelling exploration play fairway offshore from Portland.”

Essential’s permit portfolio has complete coverage of the Discovery Bay High, both onshore and offshore.

“Our expectations for this province have delivered a very early return with Essential’s East Wing gas discovery in June in the Pecten High,” Mr Remfry said.

“This onshore well intersected 46 metres of hydrocarbon zones and will be production tested from this Saturday for both oil and gas potential.

“A sustainable oil flow from East Wing will be a first step in changing the view of the Otway Basin as being a ‘gas only’ Basin.

“If this is replicated further west in the central part of the Otway Basin in a follow-up discovery in any of Essential’s offshore permits in the Discovery Bay High, this would mark the emergence of a major new hydrocarbon province in Australia.”