Karoon Energy Australia has said that the Ocean America semi-submersible drilling rig is currently mobilizing to its drilling location in the Carnarvon basin, offshore W. Australia.
Once there, it will spud the Levitt-1 exploration well. Drilling is expected to start during the first week of July.
According to Karoon, the Levitt-1 exploration well is a high impact exploration well in which Karoon has a material 50% equity interest and is carried for 90% of the cost of the well.
The well is targeting a net unrisked prospective resource best estimate of 110 mmbbls (gross 220 mmbbls).
Levitt-1 is designed to test the presence of a working petroleum system generating from the oil mature early Jurassic Wigmore sub-basin source kitchen. A successful result would open up a new exploration play in the Carnarvon Basin.
According to Karoon, the sub-basin contains a significant thickness of Jurassic source rocks of the same age and nature known to charge accumulations elsewhere in the Basin. Levitt-1 is located to receive migrating hydrocarbons from the oil mature source kitchen, testing the North Rankin and the Legendre formations.
The North Rankin and shallower Legendre formations are established highly productive reservoir units which have been mapped into the Levitt structure. The North Rankin formation is present in a large tilted fault block which is interpreted to be sealed by thick marine shales. The Legendre formation is present in a 4-way dip and fault trapping structure, interpreted with stacked pay potential. The prospect is well defined at all levels and has been mapped on a recently reprocessed 3D seismic data set.
“The presence of hydrocarbons in Levitt-1 would be a very significant event as it would prove the presence of a working petroleum system in the permit which covers an enormous area, 13,539 square kilometers. The permit has multi-billion barrel oil potential with numerous follow-up targets identified. These prospects are well defined on 3D seismic and considered to be “drill-ready” by the joint venture,” Karoon said in a statement.