Triangle set to kick off Perth Basin oil and gas hunt

Triangle Energy Global will be hunting a 279 billion cubic feet (Bcf) resource in ground south-east of Geraldton in Western Australia’s Mid West region when it launches drilling for oil and gas at its Booth prospect in the onshore Perth Basin in late June.

 The Booth-1 well is expected to cost Triangle and joint venture (JV) partners New Zealand Oil & Gas and Strike Energy less than $1.5 million and is the first well in the drilling program using new 3D seismic acquired in 2022. The Becos-1 well will then follow in the September quarter as the search for hydrocarbons intensifies in the region. 

Triangle is the operator of Permit L7, which hosts the Booth prospect, and EP437, which hosts Becos. It holds a 50 per cent interest, while its partners each have a 25 per cent share.

The company says is has now secured the Ventia 106 rig to drill Booth-1. The total depth of the well is planned to be 2900m. 

Triangle Energy managing director Conrad Todd said: “Triangle and our JV partners have utilised our new 3D seismic to locate and plan these wells and are excited to drill the first of many prospects within these permits. This latest 3D data interpretation and geological analysis has led to numerous new oil and gas prospects being identified, further highlighting the immense potential in what is the most underexplored acreage in the lucrative Perth Basin”. 

The best technical gross prospective resource estimate for the Booth prospect is 279Bcf, with a high side of 540Bcf and a low side of 113Bcf. The prospect also offers the potential for gas within the Kingia-High Cliff reservoirs and the potential for another 19Bcf of gas or 8.5 million barrels (MMbbls) of oil in the overlying Dongara sandstone. 

Booth-1 will also pass through the Cattamarra reservoirs that contain a best-estimate prospective resource of 2.7MMbbls of oil, with another 3.2MMbbls tied up in the Booth Footwall reservoir section adding to the prospectivity of the ground that sits just 50km east of the coastal WA town of Dongara.

 The company says Becos is an oil play and has a gross prospective resource range of 1 MMbbl to 21 MMbbl with a mid-case of 5 MMbbl oil. It says Becos-1 will only go to about 1km depth and will be drilled with a smaller and cheaper rig, which will be contracted once the well has regulatory approval and the green light from the JV.

Triangle says the L7 permit also holds other attractive gas prospects begging to see the drill bit, including Huntswell Deep, MH-1 Updip and Mountain Bridge South, which could provide potential for a third well. 

The onshore section of the Perth Basin is relatively unexplored, with the 2022 Bookara 3D seismic survey throwing up reflectors that suggest a major basement high underlies the MH-2 Updip prospect, which is expected to be overlain by a sandstone reservoir. MH-2 updip has a best-estimate gross prospective resource of 142Bcf.

Huntswell Deep and Mountain Bridge South have best-estimate gross prospective resources of 61Bcf and 53Bcf, respectively. 

With a late June spud date on the horizon for Booth-1, the market can expect a solid run of news out of Triangle as the drill bit makes its way down. And ASX punters seem excited by the prospect of a potential Perth Basin gas discovery, today giving the company’s share price a hike of 17 per cent from yesterday’s close to hit an intraday high of 2c.

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