In a statement this morning, Central said EPAs 105, 106 and 107 would add an additional 27,000 square kilometres to its portfolio.
About 19,500sq.km of this acreage lies in the Amadeus Basin. It includes two leads – Train Hill and Centenary West – thought by the Northern Territory Geological Survey to host up to 400 million cubic feet of gas and condensate with Helium credits in conventional reservoirs.
The remaining 7500sq.km has the potential to host “significant” CSM prospective resources in the Pedirka Basin sediments, Central said.
Magellan Petroleum has acquired about 320km of 2D vintage seismic data captured in 1981 over the large landholding.
Only one well, Bluebush-1, has been drilled on the acreage to date. Even though it was not a discovery, it added significant hard data and proved the Bitter Springs Formation hosts dark shales with well-developed, oil-prone kerogens.
Central said the well, which was drilled to only 2000m, failed to penetrate the Heavitree Quartzite, where the Magee 1 well returned wet hydrocarbon gases to the surface together with Helium at over 6% concentration.
The company said any CSM discoveries could help underpin its proposed gas-to-liquids plant at Alice Springs.
“Central has conducted pre-feasibility studies on a range of potential GTL plants fed by conventional reservoirs in the Amadeus Basin and now would like to open up the discussion to include gas sourced from the Pedirka in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs,” managing director John Heugh said.
In exchange for the three permits, Central has agreed to pay Enterprise subsidiary, Traditional Oil, $100,000 in cash and $375,000 worth of its shares. An additional $1 million would also be paid 12 months after the start of production, as well as a 1.25% royalty interest.
Once the acquisition is finalised, Central will operate more than 230,000sq.km of prospective acreage.
Of this, it said about 30,000sq.km is interpreted to overlie Permian, Triassic or Jurassic coal horizons with the potential to host CSM resources.
