Successful Corvus-2 appraisal well discovers significant offshore resource

Santos announced the successful appraisal of the Corvus field, with Corvus-2 confirming a significant gas resource in the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia.

The well, located in petroleum permit WA-45-R, in which Santos has a 100% interest, is approximately 90 km northwest of Dampier in Commonwealth waters and reached a total depth of 3,998 m. The well intersected a gross interval of 638 m, one of the largest columns discovered across the North West Shelf.

Wireline logging to date has confirmed 245 m of net hydrocarbon pay across the target reservoirs in the North Rankin and Mungaroo formations, between 3,360 and 3,998 m.

Higher permeability zones than encountered in Corvus-1 have been observed from initial pressure sampling completed in the well. Compared to Corvus-1, initial samples acquired from Corvus-2 indicate a significantly higher condensate gas ratio of up to 10 bbl/mmscf and a similar CO₂ content of 7%.

Corvus-2 is approximately 3 km southwest of Corvus-1, which was drilled in 2000. The water depth at location is 63 m. The field is approximately 28 km from the Reindeer platform, which delivers gas to the Devil Creek domestic gas plant near Karratha, and about 62 km to a Varanus Island tie-in point. Santos has a 100% interest in all these facilities.

The well was drilled using the jackup mobile offshore drilling unit, Noble Tom Prosser, and will be plugged and abandoned as planned once logging operations are completed.

“Corvus-2 has delivered a fantastic result and has opened up a number of additional exploration opportunities in the region,” Kevin Gallagher, Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said. “It is particularly exciting to have realized a higher liquids content and significantly bigger resource volume than we expected.”

“Corvus could be tied back to either our Devil Creek or Varanus Island gas plants, where it has the potential to increase the utilization of our existing facilities as well as provide backfill and extend plateau well into the 2030s,” Mr Gallagher added. “It’s a great start to our 2019 offshore drilling campaign, and it also highlights the value of the Quadrant Energy acquisition and our strategy of pursuing upstream brownfield growth opportunities around existing infrastructure.”

“The rig will now move north to commence the Dorado appraisal program,” Mr Gallagher concluded.