US oil and gas assets drive revenue for Empire

ASX-listed Empire Energy Group has closed the book on a memorable quarter, tabling bumper revenues of $3.96 million from its portfolio of conventional oil and gas assets in the New York State and Pennsylvania regions.

Strong demand for gas has also seen the company’s US operations deliver a solid EBITDA of US$1.66 million and end the September period with $32 million in the bank.

Empire’s revenue has been on an upward trend over the last few quarters, climbing from $1.5 million in Q2 of 2021 to about $3.2 in June this year and settling at just under $4 million today.

Despite the strong financial returns being heavily influenced by its North American assets, the company has immediately turned its attention to its domestic gas play in the Northern Territory's renowned Beetaloo Sub-basin.

Management believes its operations in the Beetaloo could provide a feedstock for power-hungry Australian customers and says the in-development project could provide energy security to the country.

The company has spent the period working up the asset through an active field program that was headlined by some encouraging results from a fracture simulation and flow testing of its Carpentaria-2H well.

Carpentaria-2H reached a peak flow rate of 11 million cubic feet of gas per day with an initial production rate of 2.4 million cubic feet of gas over a 30-day cycle.

Other milestones include an initial production rate of 2.2 million cubic feet of gas per day over a longer 51-day cycle.

Management argues the immense success of Carpentaria-2H’s testing program was its hydraulic stimulating or “fracking” of 21 stages - a record in the Beetaloo sub-basin.

Results from well production tests at Carpentaria-2H will flow into a thorough field development plan that will integrate the Beetaloo’s processing and gas handling facilities and see a suite of new wells drilled or “spudded”.

The plan has already seen the company commence drilling of the Carpentaria-3H well in October and work around its fracking has since commenced.

Fracking programs are aimed at releasing and extracting a formation’s gas resources. The procedure involves penetrating a resource-bearing formation and injecting a high-pressure blend of water, sand and chemicals that generate small cracks in a target that allow hydrocarbons to flow up a pipe and be captured.

Following work at Carpentaria-3H Empire plans on commencing work on a nearby probe of the yet-to-be drilled Carpentaria-4V gas well.

Empire Energy Group Managing Director, Alex Underwood said:“Empire has had another busy and successful Quarter, highlighted by an active Beetaloo field program with highly encouraging results from our Carpentaria-2H fracture stimulation and flow test, the largest stimulation executed in the basin to date with strong flow rates and relatively low decline rates compared to our peers. This bodes well for future economic development scenarios.

Empire says a huge slice of its Beetaloo-sourced gas has been promised to power supplier Origin Energy under a long-term offtake agreement, paving the way for domestic supply and extensive financial returns.

Recent figures from the Northern Territory government suggest the Beetaloo could hold up to 500 trillion cubic feet of gas – a staggering amount that could position the company at the forefront of the country’s energy demands.

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