Deeper Drilling Needed to Detect Gas Opportunities
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Opening the RIU Good Oil Conference in Perth, Argonaut executive director Kevin Johnson told delegates his company hopes to create more opportunities for gas power in Western Australia. By Apanda Anyuon
The stimulus behind Johnson’s optimism stems from the success enjoyed by the US shale gas industry.
Providing a brief history lesson, Johnson explained how the US Shale revolution in 2006 had not produced any oil, but after drilling activity commenced in 2007, predominantly in the US portion of the Bakken formation, things turned around.
In 2012 the US completed over 45,000 oil and gas wells and by the end of the year, had released an overall production of more than 1.5 million barrels per day (mbd) of crude oil.
This compares against under 4,000 wells completed in the rest of the world.
Johnson said Argonaut plans to bring about changes to the gas and oil industry in Western Australia.
“The real opportunity is industry relocation,” he said.
“The huge opportunity in western Australia is to build in areas which are close to Perth and people who know what they are doing and it’s going to be a massive gas supply and I think that’s the opportunity that’s been missed.”
Johnson believes the Perth Basin requires new thinking and technology.
In Western Australia, more than 360 wells have been drilled in the Basin’s history.
Three-quarters of these wells are concentrated in the North Perth Basin, with only 51 offshore.
“There’s a change underway in the sector and it’s a change that probably a lot of people have not seen because a lot of people gave up on this companies, a year or so ago,” he continued.
The drilling of wells peaked in 2008, with completion of 152 wells but since then the exploration activity has steadily declined.
In 2015, a field extension to the south of Perth was confirmed but is yet to be tested.
There have only been nineteen wells drilled in the Dongara area however all were terminated because of the Dongara sand, which has demonstrated poor white reservoir quality, and problems with cross faults.
“There’s a lot of new technology out there,” Johnson said.
“You have got to be aware of this and you have got to be following this because it can change and it’s changing at the right time for this industry.”
As to why it’s happening, Johnson said, “it’s all about drilling at depths and we have proven that in the last few wells that have been drilled and we have set out to drill the Perth basin gas for the origin weight.
He stressed the need to implement new technologies and how that can be used to help with drilling more wells.
He said that, in Australia, there are a few rigs that can drill deeper than 2,500 metres.
The task now was set out to drill deeper wells to bring more gas into production.