Beach Energy has made a gas discovery at the Artisan 1 exploration well located about 30km offshore Victorian Otway Basin, Australia.
Following drilling to a total depth of 2,205m measured depth (MD) using Diamond Offshore Ocean Onyx rig, the well penetrated the primary Upper WaarreFormation at approximately 92m high to prognosis.
The well is located in the licence VIC/P43, which is 60% owned by Beach. The remaining 40% stake is held by OG Energy.
The Artisan 1 well encountered a gross gas column of 69.5m in the Upper Waarre Formation. This included net gas pay of 62.9m, with a gas-water contact intersected at a measured depth of 1,990m.
Additionally, the well encountered gross gas column of 20.9m in the secondary target of the Flaxman Formation from a measured depth of 1902.8m, with net gas pay of 4.6m.
Beach Energy will case and suspend Artisan 1 well as a future producer with scope to tie into an offshore pipeline.
This pipeline currently supplies gas produced from the offshore Thylacine and Geographe fields to the Otway Gas Plant.
Beach Energy managing director and CEO Matt Kay said: “Beginning our Otway campaign with two exploration successes is a good result for Beach.
“While the Artisan discovery is at the lower end of pre-drill expectations, it is being cased as a future producer. Drilling operations have gone to plan and I want to commend the teams working on the Ocean Onyx for the successful start to the campaign.”
The Diamond Offshore Ocean Onyx rig will be deployed at the Geographe field upon completion of the casing operations.
It will start the first of two in-field development wells prior to moving to the Thylacine field for drilling an additional four in-field wells.
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