EXPLORATION

Armour boosts Roma reserves

ARMOUR Energy has posted a 510% increase in 2C contingent reserves at its newly acquired assets on Queensland's Roma Shelf, where it plans to restart the Emu Apple field next month.

SRK Consulting has completed an updated independent review of the Myall Creek, Parknook, Namarah and Warroon fields and says the former Origin Energy assets now contain a net 92 petajoules of gas, 913,000 barrels of condensate and 190,000 tonnes of LPG.

Overall 2C contingent gas resources (net) of the broader Kincora project area are now 105 PJ.

When it announced the purchase last year the fields were seen to have just 15PJ.

Armour says the contingent resources will be reclassified to 2P reserves following the restart of the mothballed Kincora gas plant, likely to be before the end of the year.

Armour has a 100% working interest in the Myall Creek petroleum licenses PL511 and PL227, which cover an area of 78sq.km and a 90% working interest in the 134sq.km PL71, host of the Parknook, Namarah and Warroon fields (Santos 10%).

Yesterday Armour said it expects Emu Apple to return to production, below budget, within a month.

The Surat Basin field last produced at a rate of around 50bopd in 2014.

The company will then shift its attention to the gas assets, starting with gas currently within the Newstead storage facility which should require minimal processing to meet sales gas specification as it was already processed prior to injection into storage.

The Newstead underground gas storage facility has gross capacity of 7.5PJ, and contains 2.3PJ of sales gas; with additional underground gas storage facilities under investigation set to add a further 19PJ of storage potential.

The balance of the re‐start will involve recommissioning of the LPG system at Kincora early in 2017.

"This is a very positive outcome and these independently verified resources are in line with our expectations based on the work we have done since we acquired the Kincora assets in 2015," Armour CEO Robbert de Weijer said.

"The PLs that encompass the 92 PJs of 2C resources cover just 211sq.km of Armour's overall tenement position in the Roma Shelf. We look forward to further increasing our resources and reserves over the larger area covering a total of 3000sq.km of contingent and prospective acreage including significant exploration upside.

"It is very clear that the Roma shelf still has a lot to give and this independent resource assessment strengthens our view, supported by independent experts that we will be able to ramp up gas production to the Kincora's plant's full capacity of 30 terajoules per day over the next few years."

The Myall Creek field produced from the Permian age Upper Tinowon and Wallabella sandstone reservoirs, and has historically produced 18.3Bcf of gas, 32,000t of LPG and 231,000bbl.

A provisional development plan for the resources using environmental authorities for PL 511 and PL 227 considered up to 49 vertical development wells with stimulation in the contingent resource area with recovery on 1600m and 800m spacing.

The Parknook, Namarah and Warroon areas produced from the Early Triassic Rewan and Middle Triassic Showgrounds sandstone reservoirs and have historically produced 13.3Bcf, 45,000t and 269,000bbl.

Full field development considered up to 21 wells across PL 71.

Regarding the production licenses and near-term petroleum resources, Armour says 38 of the 76 wells will be brought back onto production as soon as possible.

Armour offered Origin $10 million cash and a deferred $3 million in what it described as a company-making transaction.

The company believes there is more oil and gas to be found on the Roma Shelf, and sees a huge unconventional wet gas and oil upside in the Permian rocks on the western flank of the Taroom Trough.

The deal included the Kincora gas, LPG and condensate processing facilities which will provide a regional production hub, a dedicated pipeline to the Roma to Brisbane Pipeline at Wallumbilla and the Newstead and other potential gas storage facilities.

There is unrisked prospective resources exploration upside in excess of 500Bcf (best estimate) of unconventional gas and associated condensate in Permian reservoirs; with up to 3Tcf (best estimate) of unrisked prospective resources in Permian coals and the shallower Walloon coal measures.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

editions

ENB Cost Report 2023

ENB’s latest Cost Report findings provide optimism as investments in oil and gas, as well as new energy rise.

editions

ENB Future of Energy Report 2023

ENB’s inaugural Future of Energy Report details the industry outlook on the medium-to-long-term future for the sector in the Asia Pacific region.

editions

ENB Cost Report 2021

This industry-wide report aims to understand current cost levels across the energy industry

editions

ENB Social Licence Report 2021

In its second year, this research now includes trends and new findings surrounding impacts and responses as the energy industry seeks to secure and maintain a social licence to operate.