Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) has approved the transfer of equity and operatorship of exploration permit WA-409-P off Australia from Cue Energy Resources to BP.
Cue said on Tuesday that the confirmation completes the transaction announced by the company on October 13 , 2016.
As agreed, BP acquired 80 percent equity and will be the operator of WA-409-P and fund 100% of the work program required under the permit for the next three years in its entirety.
The agreement from October also entailed an option for BP to acquire 42.5 percent equity in WA-359-P from Cue through to May 2017.
Cue added that if BP exercises this option, 50 percent of the cost of drilling a well in WA-359-P will be funded. Cue is now seeking to secure a partner or partners to join the two companies in WA-359-P to drill an exploration well in 2018 to test the Ironbark prospect.
Cue completed a regional study using 15,000 km2 of 3D and 2D seismic data and 17 well ties to map the Triassic intra-Mungaroo sands and identified the Ironbark prospect, which straddles WA-359-P and WA-409-P in moderate water depths, as a drillable target.
Ironbark is a giant Mungaroo Formation prospect mapped within an area of up to 400 square kilometers with a best technical estimate of 15 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of prospective recoverable gas resources. The prospect is less than 50 kilometers from the North Rankin platform and in proximity to Pluto and Wheatstone LNG infrastructure, which provides cost effective commercialization options.