Santos, Beach report on Australia exploration

Australia

SYDNEY, May 3, 2017 – Australian operators Santos and Beach Energy on Wednesday announced the results of their respective exploration efforts, reporting mixed results.

Beach Energy said its two wells in the PEL 630 area in southern Australia, Butterfish-1 and Harvey’s Return-1, had failed to encounter hydrocarbons. It fared better in the Pennington field, where two of the company’s wells, Pennington-5 and 6, recently intersected net oil pay layers.

Santos’ operations in the Cooper basin were also hit-and-miss. While the Hector South-1 well encountered a gas pay zone of 6.7 metres, the company had to plug the Gallan-1 hole.

Also on Wednesday, Santos said it had lifted its option to acquire a 50% operated interest from Central Petroleum in the EPA 111 and EPA 124 permits in the Southern Amadeus basin.