Is There Any New Oil in Australia?

Over the past decade Australia has enjoyed an oil and gas boom. Though as an non-renewable resource, questions are being raised over whether or not the ‘Lucky Country’ has been bled dry. But according to Beach Energy, there are still plenty of opportunities to tap.

Beach Energy strikes liquid gold

Late last month, the Adelaide based company confirmed that it made a significant oil discovery on the western flank of South Australia’s onshore Cooper basin. The discovery could emerge as a major resource for Beach Energy, and validates the Poolowana September-1 Formation as a lucrative exploration target.

The company was quick to go public with its discovery, and released a statement confirming that its exploration well had hit an eight-metre gross interval, with the Poolowana formation identified as an oil rich region. A drill stem test was carried out to sanction the findings, with exploration depths ranging between 1927.8 and 1936 metres. In total, Beach Energy recovered 15.2 barrels of 42-degree API oil within a 1.5-hour flow period. From a daily perspective, this translates to around 210 barrels per day.

Double dipping in South Australia

For Beach Energy, the promising results endorse the value of its wholly-owned PEL 91 permit area, and puts the Poolawana area on the radar as a major exploration target. In the lead up to the end of the 2017 financial year the company plans to continue mapping the formation, with the hope of kick-starting field exploration activities in 2018.

The discovery is a big win for Beach Energy, with CEO Matt Kay commenting that it’s the second major breakthrough to emerge from the first two exploration wells of its FY17 operated drilling project. 

“Importantly, discovery of oil in the Birkhead Formation at Kangaroo-1 and in the Poolowanna Formation at September-1 has proven additional play potential within PEL 91. This reinforces our confidence in the ongoing prospectivity of our Western Flank acreage,” he says.

The economy may be pessimistic, but discoveries like the Poolowanna Formation confirm that for companies drilling in the right places, there’s still plenty of oil to tap.

Despite the positivity that comes with new finds like Beach Energy’s Poolowana September-1 Formation, there’s no escaping the fact that oil is a non-renewable resource. For more information on the future of global energy, ‘Can fossil fuels and green energy work hand-in-hand?’ offers polished commentary from Professor Dr. Gioia Falcone, Head of the Oil and Gas Engineering Centre at Cranfield University.