Page 9 - AsianOil Week 32 2021

AsianOil OCEANIA AsianOil
Origin spuds NT shale well amid mounting opposition
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
AUSTRALIAN developer Origin Energy’s announcement this week that it had begun drill- ing a well in the shale oil and gas rich Beetaloo Sub-basin came amid mounting opposition to unconventional development in the region.
The developer confirmed on August 12 that it had successfully spudded the Velkerri 76 S2-1 well in EP76, which is one of three licences the company operates on behalf of its joint venture with Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (FOGL). The other two permits are EP98 and EP117.
Origin said the Velkerri 76 vertical well would assess the prospectivity of liquids rich gas in the eastern flank of the venture’s permit areas. Core, wireline, and diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT) data will be collected to inform potential future appraisal activity.
In addition to the vertical well, Origin has also begun a further extended production test at the Amungee NW-1H well (EP 98). The developer said it was retesting the dry gas Velkerri shale play to assess if all of the original stages that were fracture stimulated contributed to production.
An initial extended production test led to the announcement of a 6.6 trillion cubic foot (186.91bn cubic metres) 2C material gas resource in February 2017.
Origin added that it had paused operations at the Kyalla 117 well to investigate downhole flow restriction and that it was preparing to commence an extended production test in the coming weeks. The developer started on-site operations at the well in June, with FOGL reveal- ing at the time that rigging up had been com- pleted and clean-up operations had resumed.
Origin announced a discovery at the Kyalla 117 N2-1H ST2 well in January, noting that early test data showed unassisted gas flow rates of 400,000-600,000 cubic feet (11,328-16,992 cubic metres) per day over a 17-hour period. The company’s initial observations indicated a liquid-rich gas composition with a carbon diox- ide (CO2) content of less than 1%. Condensate shows were also present.
Origin’s announcement this week included a statement to the fact that all work was being carried out with “Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) certification and the sup- port of Native Title holders for where activity is occurring”.
The company added that environmen- tal approval for the Velkerri 76 well had been granted by the NT government in late Decem- ber 2019.
However, a Senate Inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo has heard accusations that an imbalance of power in the relationship between the federal and NT
governments undermines the credibility of the local authority’s project approvals.
“The Northern Territory government is in an extremely challenging position fiscally and is more dependent on other jurisdictions on fed- eral funding,” NT Environment Centre Co-Di- rector Kirsty Howey told the inquiry on July 29. “This creates a significant power imbalance between the federal and NT governments. It is within this context that the federal government’s funding injections to industry and the Northern Territory government must be examined.”
Australian Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Keith Pitt said on March 18 that AUD50mn ($36.7mn) worth of grants would be provided for Beetaloo drill- ing programmes. Since then, the government has awarded a AUD21mn ($15.4mn) grant to Empire Energy subsidiary Imperial Oil and Gas.
However, environmental campaigners have launched federal court proceedings to challenge Pitt’s decision on the upstream grant.
The decision to award grants to shale devel- opers has also sparked outrage among local indigenous communities, with the Gudanji, Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Jingili, Mudburra and Alawa nations uniting in opposition to Canberra’s efforts to speed up drilling efforts.
Members of the Aboriginal nations told the aforementioned Senate inquiry on August 2 that the money would have been better used to improve communities’ limited access to basic services.™
Week 32 12•July•2021 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9