Quadrant Energy has signed a contract with Ensco to drill the highly anticipated Dorado-1 exploration well off Australia using the Ensco-107 jack-up drilling rig.
The Dorado-1 well is located within the WA-437-P exploration permit in the North-West Shelf of Australia. The equity interest holders are Quadrant Northwest (operator) with 80% interest and Carnarvon Petroleum with the remaining 20% interest.
According to Carnarvon’s statement on Monday, the Dorado-1 exploration well, which has a number of large targets, will be drilled with Ensco’s 2006-built jack-up drilling rig, Ensco-107.
The primary target is the proven Caley Sandstone which Carnarvon estimates to contain a mean prospective resource of 545 bscf of gas and 31 mmbbls of condensate. The Milne Sandstone is a secondary target which may contain up to four additional sands of a similar size, albeit with a slightly higher risk.
Carnarvon also added that the Dorado-1 well is expected to start around May 2018 while the Phoenix South-3 well is expected to start around March 2018. Rigs have now been secured for both wells. Namely, the Phoenix South-3 well will be drilled with the Transocean-owned GSF Development Driller-1 semi-submersible drilling rig.
Carnarvon’s Managing Director, Adrian Cook , said: “The results of our 2018 drilling program are expected to be important contributors to our knowledge of the Bedout sub-basin and its near term commerciality. 2018 will be an exciting time with the Phoenix South-3 well evaluating the gas and condensate already discovered in the nearby Phoenix South-2 well, while the Dorado-1 well will be exploring for significant gas and condensate volumes over multiple reservoir sands only some 15 kilometers from the highly successful Roc-2 well.”