Mineral Resources’ (MinRes) recent gas exploration activity has unveiled a high-quality gas reservoir at the Lockyer-5 (L-5) conventional gas development well located in the onshore Perth Basin.
Following appraisal of the L-5 well, a sidetrack was drilled to a gas development well location that reached a depth of over 4,500 metres.
Analysis indicated an average porosity of 18%, an outstanding result which is the highest quality reservoir encountered in all wells that have intersected the Kingia Sandstone across the onshore Perth Basin.
L-5 is the fourth of 10 development wells planned for MinRes’ Lockyer Conventional Gas Project development in the onshore Perth Basin. Preparations are now under way for a well test in early April 2024 to evaluate gas flow rates and composition.
In June 2023, MinRes announced a significant discovery at North Erregulla Deep-1 (NED-1), with successful exploration to a depth of more than 4,000 metres finding a substantial gas reservoir. An oil zone was also identified in the secondary objective Dongara Sandstone at a depth of about 3,000 metres.
Subsequently, in March 2024 MinRes began drilling at North Erregulla-2 (NE-2) and is expected to reach a total depth of 3,492m by mid-April.
NE-2 is an appraisal well to test the quality and deliverability of oil in the Dongara-Wagina Sandstone encountered in the NED-1 well. A flow test will further ascertain and unlock the considerable oil potential in the region.
As the largest petroleum and geothermal acreage holder in the onshore northern Perth and Carnarvon Basins, MinRes seeks conventional gas and geothermal energy solutions that support our long-term business growth and continue to improve our sustainability performance.
Following successful exploration and appraisal of the Lockyer gas field, MinRes is progressing plans to develop a gas production facility to help reduce the company’s dependency on diesel and support domestic market needs.
The company has commenced the engineering design and approvals works for the gas production facility which will feed into the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.
More information on recent progress at L-5 and NE-2 is available in our ASX announcement.
