Australian oil and gas company, Cue Energy Resources, has received an approval for suspension of the work program commitment for its permit in the Carnarvon Basin off Australia, and an extension of the permit term.
The company was notified by the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) of the approval of its application for a suspension of the Permit Year 3 work program commitment for WA-359-P and extension of the permit term.
The Year 3 work commitment comprises the drilling of one exploration well which is now due by April 2018. The permit term has also been extended until April 2018. Cue has 100% equity and is operator of WA-359-P.
WA-359-P contains the Ironbark gas prospect. Ironbark is a giant, Mungaroo Formation prospect with multiple objectives. The structure is a simple NE-SW horst block with symmetric rollover, mapped as 140 – 400 km2 in area with a best technical estimate of more than 15 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of unrisked prospective gas resource based on internal technical assessment by Cue.
Cue is currently undertaking a farm-out process to find a suitable JV partner to participate in the drilling of a well targeting the Ironbark prospect.
The company stated that the extension of the permit tenure would assist it to advance this process, and that several international oil companies were evaluating the opportunity.