Vintage Energy commences fracture stimulation campaign at Vali gas field
Vintage Energy plans to begin gas sales from its 50%-owned Vali field later this year.
Oil and gas explorer Vintage Energy (ASX: VEN) has announced the start of a fracture stimulation campaign at the Vali gas field within the onshore Cooper/Eromanga Basin.
Conducted by Schlumberger and supervised by Griffin Energy Solutions, the campaign will target the gas-bearing Patchawarra formation which intersects multiple zones of the Vali-2 and Vali-3 wells.
It has been scheduled over approximately 42 days and is a prelude to completion of all wells for production of gas for sale to AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) under a gas sales agreement announced last month.
Sales are due to commence from field start-up later this year through to the end of the 2026 calendar year, with the total volume of contracted gas estimated at between 9 petajoules and 16PJ (gross).
Toolachee formation
Vintage said production from the Patchawarra formation is expected to be supplemented by flows from the productive Toolachee formation.
In November, the company confirmed the Toolachee reservoir has conventional gas flow potential to supplement the unconventional potential gas productivity in the Patchawarra zone previously tested in Vali-1 ST1.
Fracture stimulation of Vali-1 ST1 – which discovered stacked gas pay in the Nappamerri and Toolachee formations – has already been completed.
Moomba connection
Following completion operations, the Vali gas field will be connected to the nearby Moomba gas gathering network for supply to the eastern Australian domestic gas market.
Engineering for the connection project is almost complete and procurement of equipment and materials is underway.
Finalisation of necessary processing and tie-in agreements is advancing, with execution expected in the near future.
Vali ownership
Vintage operates the Vali field in Queensland permit ATP 2021 with a 50% interest.
Its joint venture partners Metgasco (ASX: MEL) and Bridgeport (Cooper Basin) each hold 25%.
The Vali gas field has been independently assessed to contain proved and probable reserves of 101PJ gross.
Premier region
The Cooper/Eromanga Basin is Australia’s premier onshore oil and gas producing region.
Cooper is a permo-carboniferous to triassic basin with sediment up to 2500 metres thick which consists of interbedded sandstones, shales and coals.
The overlying Eromanga is early Jurassic to late Cretaceous in age and has sediment up to 3,000m thick which consists of sandstones, siltstones and shales.
Over 2,500 exploration and development wells have been drilled across the basin to date, with estimated cumulative production of over 6.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, 315 million barrels of oil and 92 million barrels (of oil equivalent) of condensate.
Cervantes-1 oil well
Over in Western Australia’s onshore Perth Basin, drilling of the Cervantes-1 oil exploration well is progressing.
Vintage is earning a 30% interest in well, which has now reached a total depth of 2,050.
The well’s total depth is expected to reach 2,370m.