It was a ‘duster’ – that’s what American oil people call a dry hole.
An estimated $35 million gone with an exploration well off WA Pilbara coast coming up dry and ruining the outlook for two tiddlers, Global Oil and Gas and Prominence Energy.
The duo had farmed into (bought a stake) Western Gas’ Sasanof well in the Carnarvon Basin off the Pilbara coast along with UK group, Clontarf Energy.
Monday night they were licking their wounds and counting their pennies after their shares plunged on Monday – Global shares fell 80% to $0.004 on the ASX and closed there again on Tuesday. Prominence shares lost 70% to $0.002 and were also unchanged Tuesday.
In London, Clontarf shares were off 72% to 0.11p.
It’s another failure by the privately owned Western Gas to develop the Equus gas fields it bought off US giant Hess in 2017 for $US2.
Hess had spent heavily finding and then trying to prove up the field to sufficient size and then threw it in when gas and oil prices slumped in 206 and 2017, reportedly leaving five unplugged wells in the field.
The Sasanof-1 well is west and southwest of WGC’s Equus gas fields, all of which lie between Woodside’s Scarborough fields and Chevron’s Gorgon-Io-Jansz fields.
Drilling started two weeks ago and on the weekend the bit went through the layers of interest where the gas was said to be located but came up dry.
Before drilling, the Sasanof field was claimed to be prospective for gas and condensate, a “heavier-than-gas” or “light” oil.
The companies said the well had nothing and will now be plugged and abandoned, leaving the Equus field without a home for its gas – a similar situation to the one Hess found itself in.
