Falcon Oil begins work programme on Beetaloo sub-basin

Falcon Oil & Gas announced the start of its 2021 work programme on Tuesday, starting with operations at Kyalla 117 in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin of Australia’s Northern Territory with its joint venture partner Origin Energy B2, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Origin Energy.

The AIM-traded firm said onsite operations at Kyalla 117 had launched, with rigging-up now complete, and clean-up operations having resumed.

Those operations, if successful, would result in an extended production test being carried out to determine the expected longer-term performance of the well.

Falcon described the Kyalla shale play as a “liquids-rich” gas play, which had only been identified in the joint venture acreage with two prospective stacked targets in the gas window, and one in the oil window.

Origin submitted a notification of discovery and an initial report of discovery to the Northern Territory government in January, recording unassisted gas flow rates ranging between 0.4 million and 0.6 million standard cubic per day over 17 hours, which were preliminary indications of well performance.

An extended production test was now required to determine the longer-term performance of Kyalla 117, Falcon explained.

At Velkerri 76, Falcon said the shale play was the largest play fairway in the Beetaloo, with four prospective stacked targets.

It said the play consisted primarily of dry gas, with liquids-rich gas fairways on the basin flanks having “multi-trillion” cubic feet potential.

Multiple successful tests had taken place within the dry gas window on Amungee NW 1H, Tanumbirini 1 and Shenandoah 1A.

Falcon said the 2021 work programme at Velkerri included targeting the play along the south-eastern flank of the Beetaloo Sub-Basin, which was expected to be in a liquids-rich gas window.

It would drill a vertical pilot well to acquire core, run logs and perform diagnostic fracture injection test data across the Velkerri.

Finally, at Amungee NW 1H, Falcon noted that following a 57-day extended production test of the well that ended in December 2016, production averaged 1.1 million standard cubic feet per day.

In February 2017, Origin submitted the results of evaluation of the discovery and preliminary estimate of petroleum in place for the Amungee NW-1H Velkerri B shale gas pool to the Northern Territory government, amounting to a gross contingent resource of 6.6 trillion cubic feet, of which 1.46 trillion cubic feet was net to Falcon.

The 2021 work programme at Amungee would include an extended production test and production log to confirm zonal contribution, determining if all frack stages contributed to the initial extended production test conducted in 2016.

“The commencement of operations at Kyalla 117 is an exciting first step for the planned 2021 work programme which will cover three different plays in the Beetaloo providing key information that will help determine the future appraisal and development programme,” said chief executive officer Philip O’Quigley.

“We look forward to providing results as soon as they become available.”

At 0850 BST, shares in Falcon Oil & Gas were up 2.86% at 5.94p.