Santos has chosen not to farm into Melbana Energy’s Beehive prospect in the Bonaparte Basin off Western Australia.
Deadline
The Adelaide-headquartered oil and gas company had an option to acquire an 80% interest in the block in exchange for funding the drilling costs of an exploration well. However, The deadline to complete the farm-in expired on March 4.
“Santos therefore no longer has any right to acquire an interest in the Permit. As a result, Melbana now has a 100% unencumbered 100% interest in the Permit,” Melbana said.
Last year Total also declined to farm into the block.
Melbana said it was in talks to line up potential partners for an exploration well in the Beehive prospect – “a process that is greatly assisted by the high-quality 3D seismic survey undertaken in 2018 by Total and Santos and the significant preparatory work that has been completed to date.”
“Should Melbana be successful in attracting new partners to assist it with the drilling of an exploration well in the Beehive prospect, it intends to seek an extension to its obligation to drill an exploration well by December of this year to align with expected rig availability in 2021,” Melbana said.
Melbana said it had started work on reassessing its volumetric assessment of the prospective resource in the Beehive prospect and its interpretation of other possible plays in the Permit area using the newly acquired 3D seismic survey.
Beehive is located in a water depth of 40 meters close to several existing facilities, including the Ichthys project and Blacktip field and pipeline, and has been estimated by McDaniel & Associates to have a prospective resource of 388 million barrels of oil equivalent (best estimate).
