Vintage Energy and Metgasco confirm Vali-2 gas as future producer
Vintage Energy’s revised strategy involves building resources to maximise value from the Vali gas field as well as ensuring infrastructure is secured with appropriate capacity.
Vintage Energy (ASX: VEN) has confirmed the presence of gas at its Vali-2 well in the Cooper Basin and has subsequently cased and suspended it for future production.
Vali-2 is located within permit ATP 2021 in Queensland, which is 50% owned and operated by Vintage with Metgasco (ASX: MEL) and Bridgeport Cooper Basin each holding 25% interests.
Last week, Vintage reported drilling reaching the total planned depth of 3,240m and a number of gas shows were encountered in the Toolachee and Patchawarra formations.
Today, the company announced wireline logging data has confirmed this presence of gas in both formations.
Vali-2 is now the second well in the Vali gas field to be cased for production purposes, and as such, it highlights the multi-well field development potential of the project, according to Vintage managing director Neil Gibbins.
“The identification and recovery of a gas sample from the Toolachee formation indicates the conventional upside we were hoping for. We anticipate a corresponding reserve booking for the formation and an increase in the overall Vali field reserves,” he said.
“Along with confirmation of the significant Patchawarra formation potential, this is an excellent result for the joint venture.”
New reserve booking to include Toolachee gas
One of the main objectives of Vali-2 was to assess the potential for gas in the Toolachee formation four-way dip closure, which was not tested in the previous Vali-1 ST1 well.
The Vali field has been certified to contain 2P (best estimate) reserves of 33.2 petajoules of gas, although this currently only reflects gas in the Patchawarra formation.
As a result of finding gas in the Toolachee formation, an updated reserve booking is anticipated.
Odin-1 spud
Vintage is now turning its attention to its Cooper Basin permit PRL 211, where a rig is being mobilised to drill the Odin-1 exploration well.
PRL 211 is 42.5% owned and operated by Vintage with Metgasco and Bridgeport each holding 21.25% stakes.
Odin-1 is being drilled to address a large fault bounded Patchawarra formation closure, up dip of the historical Strathmount-1 well, which was drilled in 1987, but plugged and abandoned after discovering a non-commercial quantity of hydrocarbons.
Vintage said the Odin structure has been de-risked by the success at Vali-1 ST1 and Vali-2 and has the potential for gas in the Toolachee formation with a 40% chance of success and high chance of development, and the Patchawarra formation with a 32% chance of success and high chance of development.
The Odin structure has been estimated to host a best-estimate gross prospective resource of 12.6 billion cubic feet of gas.
Mr Gibbins said the well is expected to spud “around mid-May”.