Instos back Triangle $4m raise for Perth Basin campaign

Triangle Energy says its recent $4m capital raise was well supported by financial institutions and sophisticated investors as the company prepares to break out the drill rig for the first time in years in the Perth basin. Triangle is pivoting out of its near depleted Cliff Head offshore oil well and back into exploration with two interesting looking Perth Basin oil and gas plays.

The $4 million placement will add to Triangle’s existing $5 million cash balance, providing a substantial war chest for the company to explore its L7 and EP437 permits within the Perth Basin. 

The company’s new pursuit of onshore oil and gas kicks off this week with management saying the Booth-1 well is on track to spud at the company’s 50 per cent owned L7 acreage north-east of the town of Dongara.

The well is testing up to three separate rock formations that Triangle says are prospective for both oil and gas. It features a substantial target with a prospective resource range of between 113 billion cubic feet of gas (Bcf) and 540 Bcf, with a best estimate of 279 Bcf for the Kingia-High Cliff reservoirs.

According to management, the 2900m well at Booth will be the first drilling at the acreage for about 30 years and represents one of the last underexplored landholdings in the burgeoning Perth Basin which features the likes of majors Hancock Prospecting, MinRes, Mitsui and Beach Energy.

Triangle Energy managing director Conrad Todd said: “With the imminent spud of Booth-1, we are excited to commence what promises to be the most thrilling drilling campaign undertaken by a junior company in recent years.”

The recent capital raise to focus on Perth Basin exploration comes after Triangle agreed to sell its 78.75 per cent interest in the nearly depleted Cliff Head project to its JV partner Pilot Energy for $16m. Pilot is looking to re-purpose the project as a carbon storage facility.

Settlement on Cliff Head is expected for mid-October. The project provided $6.54 million to Triangle for oil sales in late April.

Triangle has also been quietly accumulating oil and gas acreage in the UK where it has been awarded joint venture permits north of the Shetland Isles and east of Scotland with partners Athena Energy and Orcadian Energy respectively. Management says the UK prospects contain low risk shallow gas potential.

An eighth and final offtake of oil is to be delivered to Asia from Cliff Head on August 2nd before the site is establish as a carbon-capture storage facility to be operated solely by Pilot. The asset will convert to a non-production-phase as soon as next month with final payments from oil sales expected in early September.

Also on the exploration agenda for Triangle is the significant Becos prospect about 16km west of Booth. The purely oil target features a prospective resource range of 1 million barrels of oil (MMbbl) to 21 MMbbl, with a best estimate of 5 MMbbl. It is a much shallower target than Booth at a little more than 1000m in depth that management expects to start drilling in September, subject to government approvals.

The possibility of a third well at L7 also exists with the prospective Huntswell Deep target, a previously unmapped structure that was identified on 3D seismic about 6km north-west of Booth.

Having extracted all it can from Cliff Head, Triangle’s pivot back to exploration in the Perth basin is timely. Its partners in the project, Strike Energy and New Zealand Oil and Gas are no slouches either. Both are good at finding oil and gas and Strike in particular, has form when it comes to the Perth Basin.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au