Triangle spuds exploration well for major WA gas hunt

Triangle Energy Global’s hunt for onshore oil and gas in Western Australia has grown white-hot, with the spudding of its Booth-1 exploration well at the Booth prospect marking the launch of a highly-anticipated drilling campaign in the underexplored North Perth Basin.

The drilling is targeting a hefty 279 billion cubic feet (Bcf) resource as part of Triangle’s joint venture (JV) agreement with Strike Energy and Echelon Resources (formerly known as New Zealand Oil & Gas) across the broader L7 tenure.

The company says L7 represents one of the last underexplored landholdings in the North Perth Basin as it has not been subjected to any exploration drilling for about three decades.

Drilling at Booth-1 has been designed to intercept gas in the Kingia-High Cliff reservoirs and it also hosts potential for oil and gas in the overlying sandstones within the Dongara and Cattamarra formations. Drilling is projected to last for three weeks as the well is sunk to a measured depth of about 2900m.

Curiously, Booth-1 is targeting the same interpreted Dongarra structure as the recent Lockyer Deep and North Erregulla Deep oil discoveries by mining and energy powerhouse, Mineral Resources.

Triangle Energy Global managing director Conrad Todd said: “This is a pivotal time for Triangle. We have been exhaustive in assessing the Booth prospect and we are very excited to have drilling underway. This will be the first well drilled in our permits for 30 years. We have many independent targets identified using the new 3D seismic data on these permits that will provide an attractive portfolio to explore for many years.”

The Booth prospect lies in the eastern part of the L7 acreage and is estimated to contain a prospective resource range of between 113 Bcf and 540 Bcf of gas from a series of targets.

More broadly, the L7 tenure hosts a prospective resource range of between 205 Bcf and 1084 Bcf of gas across four prospects including Booth, which has a best estimate of 535 Bcf. It has also been assessed to contain a prospective oil resource of between 18 million barrels of oil (MMbbl) and 72 MMbbl from a string of targets.

Triangle holds a 50 per cent interest in the L7 permit and the nearby EP437 concession where a best estimate of 7 MMbbl of oil has been identified, with the potential to reach as much as 28 MMbbl.

AT EP437, the company plans to drill the Becos-1 well in the fourth quarter of this year with another well also potentially on the agenda at one of its two permits.

Spudding of the Booth-1 well represents a major milestone in Triangle’s pursuit of oil and gas in the North Perth Basin. The West Perth-based outfit may well be one worth keeping an eye on as its efforts to unearth WA’s next source of energy rapidly build up steam.

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