IPB Petroleum Secures Permit Extension To Drill Pryderi-1 Well At WA-424-P In Browse Basin
IPB Petroleum (ASX:IPB) and its joint venture partner MidAmerican subsidiary CalEnergy, have secured a 12 month extension to dril the Pryderi well at the WA-424-P permit in Western Australia.
The extension of the permit work program until 12 July 2014 will allow the joint venture enough time to drill the Pryderi-1 exploration well and fully evaluate the results before starting the secondary term.
The extension was sought due to the tight rig market and lack of a suitable offshore rig to drill the Pryderi-1 well.
Subject to regulatory approvals and the company securing a rig, the well is likely to be drilled during the fourth quater of 2013. The drilling is likely to take around 12-15 days, with IPB free-carried under its farm out agreement with CalEnergy.
IPB's total mean prospective recoverable resources across three of its permits in the Browse Basin stand 672 million barrels of oil. Its permits are in the prolific Browse Basin off north west Western Australia, where other energy behemoths are progressing projects.
Shell is developing Prelude, the first floating LNG project, Woodside is steadfast on its LNG project, while Inpex is developing the Ichthys project and ConocoPhillips has had success with its Poseidon project.
IPB's managing director, Brendan Brown said, "IPB remains extremely positive about the prospectivity of the southern margin of the Browse Basin and believes that success at Pryderi could open up a significant new oil province in this part of offshore Australia".
Due to the relatively shallow water depth of about 80 metres at Pryderi-1, the well can be drilled by either a semi-submersible or by a jack up rig. The joint venture has identified a number of potential rigs that may be available towards the end of this calendar year.
The Pryderi prospect, in the Permit WA-424-P, where IPB has 75% interest is estimated to have a mean prospective recoverable oil resource of 40 million barrels on unrisked basis and is 10 kilometres from its Gwydion oil discovery.
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