Page 12 - AsianOil Week 36 2021

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Environment Centre NT’s lawsuit, however, the full production zone, while 85-95% had
alleges that Pitt failed to act in a “reasonable, come from the first 200 metres of the well.
rational and logical” manner when awarding the Origin said: “The result from this section,
grants. The centre’s co-director, Kirsty Howey, which has been independently verified, can now
said in July that such awards needed to be reasonably be considered to represent the deliv-
preceded by a careful examination of their erability that could be achieved across the full
impacts on climate change, the environment and production zone of this and further wells drilled
the community. and fracture stimulated in the same Velkerri
She added: “The law requires the minister to shale formation.”
be satisfied that the expenditure is a proper use The company added that the result suggested
of money … we say that means inquiries into a normalised gas flow rate of 5.2-5.8 mmcf
the risks of a heating climate if the heart of the (147,300 cubic metres) per day for every 1,000
Northern Territory was opened up to fracking.” metres of lateral drilling. Origin said a typi-
cal future production well might have an up to
Origin results 3,000-metre long lateral production section.
The legal battle comes at a time of growing Origin’s general manager of Beetaloo and
opposition to development within the Beeta- growth assets, Chris White, said: “These results
loo, even as developers begin making strides significantly increase our assessment of potential
in proving up the basin’s potential. The NT deliverability and commerciality of future wells
Geological Survey has estimated the basin in this area. While further work will be required
could hold more than 200,000 PJ (5.21 trillion in coming years to determine if the result can be
cubic metres) of gas. reproduced on a larger scale, this result indicates
Origin Energy said this week that positive the Velkerri dry gas play may be in line with
results from extended production testing at the commercial shale plays around the world, based
Amungee NW-1 well had increased its under- on normalised production rates.”
standing of the Velkerri dry gas play. Australia’s proposed “gas-fired recovery” has
The developer added that the well had flowed found very little traction with the upstream or the
gas at an average rate of 1.23mn cubic feet environmental lobby. With doubts growing over
(34,800 cubic metres) per day over the first three whether the government could or should boost
weeks of production testing, with the majority gas production, Canberra is striving to reset the
of these flows coming from only a portion of narrative over its resources strategy. Whether the
the well. It said 5-15% of the gas had come from government’s short-term drilling incentives can
stages beyond a certain point in the well that was outweigh the potential fallout from a court clash
thought to be restricting the flow of gas across over their merits remains to be seen.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 09•September•2021