Triangle steps onshore in Perth Basin gas chase

Triangle Energy Global has completed the first stages of pivoting away from its ageing, offshore foundation asset of Cliff Head by completing a 3D seismic survey over its onshore permits as it seeks to replicate the success of fellow explorers in the Perth Basin in discovering elephant-size gas fields along the route of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.

The company is in the process of soaking up the balance of the interests it doesn’t already own in the EP437 and L7 permits in the northern section of the Perth Basin. The L7 permit contained the shallow, historic Mt Horner oilfield that has largely been decommissioned. However, Triangle has its sights on deeper targets.

The resurgence in the fortunes of the Perth Basin has been driven by the discovery of large, deep gas reservoirs in the Kingia formation, illustrated by the large Waitsia, Senecio, Walyering, West Erregulla and Lockyer Deep gas fields.  The 117 million cubic feet per day flow rates from Lockyer Deep were among the highest recorded in Australia.

The Perth Basin is a large sedimentary basin of late Permian age that extends about 1300km along the West Australian coast from Dongara in the north to Margaret River in the south. The basin which extends both onshore and offshore has been explored for oil and gas since the early 1950s, with most of the success focused on the onshore, northern region.

Triangle management has previously described the two permits as the jewel in the crown of the company’s asset base as it gradually moves away from the oil production and significant decommissioning costs associated with Cliff Head into cleaner burning gas.

Complete processing of the seismic data is expected to take four to five months, however the company believes a fast-tracked seismic model will be available sooner, enabling Triangle to start its interpretation and prospect generation earlier.

Triangle Energy Global Managing Director, Conrad Todd said: “This is a major step towards realising the potential in this highly prospective block. Following completion of the fast-track cube interpretation, we will move quickly to the drill planning phase.”

Triangle is anticipating being able to confirm its early resource estimates in addition to the risk reduction of its seven existing prospects and leads that it predicted last month to contain a “most likely” prospective resource case of 617 billion cubic feet and 19 million barrels of oil.

The 3D survey was shot using low impact vibroseis trucks set up in the area after local farmers had finished cropping and other sensitive agricultural activities.

The trucks use their own mass and a large weight to impact and transfer energy to the ground’s surface where the bounceback signal is picked up by geophones on the ground and subsequently interpreted into drillable targets.

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