ACOR Purchases Two Royalty Interests Located Offshore Western Australia
Cisco, TX - Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd. announced that the Company has purchased two (2) royalty interests under offshore exploration permits, WA 372 & 373. The permits are located in the prolific Northwest Shelf in the Carnarvon Basin.
The Carnarvon Basin is Australia's basin in terms of oil production and is by far the largest in terms of gas production. Last year, 29 exploration wells (new field wildcats) were drilled Offshore Western Australia with 27 of the 29 offshore wells being drilled in the Carnarvon Basin.
The location of ACOR's ORRI under WA 372 & WA 373 is located close to some giant oil & gas discoveries. The western border of WA 372 & 373 is approximately 10 kilometers from the Woolybutt oil field which is currently producing approximately 24,000 barrels of oil per day or $604,800,000 per year at current market prices.
The eastern border of WA 372 is approximately 10 kilometers from the Barrow Island Oil Field, Australia's largest oil field with approximately 1.25 Billion barrels of oil in place or $87,500,000,000 at current market prices. The Barrow Oil Field has already produced approximately 300,000,000 barrels of oil or $21,000,000,000 at current market prices.
This does not even take in consideration the giant gas fields in the area. Located approximately 30 kilometers from the western border of WA 372, the Gorgon gas field has estimated reserves of 18 TCF of gas and 132,000,000 barrels of oil or $54,240,000,000 at current market prices.
The operator of WA 372 has an $A41,000,000 exploration program that includes drilling 2 wells within the 1st three years with an option to drill an additional 2 wells in years 4 thru 6. The estimated cost to drill one well is in excess of $A10,000,000.
The operator of WA 373 has an $A20,000,000 exploration program that includes drilling 2 wells within the 1st three years. The estimated cost to drill one well is in excess of $A10,000,000.
About Offshore Western Australia
Offshore Western Australia is well established nationally and internationally as a significant hydrocarbon-bearing area. Offshore Western Australia has risen to prominence as Australia's leading oil producing State, with the State's daily oil and condensate production having surpassed that of Victoria's Gippsland Basin.
Offshore Western Australia also leads the nation in gas and LNG production. Petroleum (crude oil, condensate and natural gas) has become a leading contributor to the State's resources sector. Petroleum production accounts for more than one third of the value of Western Australia's mineral and energy production.
Offshore Western Australia was home to 67 producing oil and gas fields in 2005.
Collectively, they produce in excess of A$14B worth of oil, gas, condensate, LNG and other products per year.
Additional Northwest Shelf (Carnarvon Basin) Fields
The Carnarvon basin in the Northwest Shelf contains a number of giant gas and gas-condensate fields. The Greater Gorgon area, which includes other nearby gas fields, is 130 km off the northwest coast of Western Australia in the Carnarvon basin. The fields in that area contain in excess of 40 Trillion Cubic Feet of gas.
The Gorgon field development plan is well advanced. It involves the installation of a subsea gathering system and a 70 km subsea pipeline to Barrow Island.
A gas processing facility located on the Barrow Island would process the gas. Carbon dioxide would be removed and reinjected into deep saline reservoirs below the island, and the liquid hydrocarbon product would be transported by ship to international markets. Natural gas would be delivered via a subsea pipeline to the Western Australian mainland for use in industrial and domestic gas markets.
The initial development is a two-train LNG processing facility on Barrow Island, producing 10 million tonnes/year of LNG and delivering 280 MMcfd of gas to existing mainland domestic gas infrastructure.
This development is also planned to include the Io/Jansz giant gas field. The construction would be phased over 3-15 years.
The Io/Jansz was discovered in the Carnarvon basin in 2000 and has an in place gas resource estimated at 20 Trillion Cubic Feet of gas.
Other nearby gas discoveries in the Carnarvon Basin includes Geryon, Orthrus, Maenad, Dionysus, and Chrysaor.
The Scarborough gas field is held by Esso Australia Resources Ltd. (Esso) and BHP Billiton Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty. Ltd. and has gas in place estimated at 5 Trillion Cubic Feet of gas.
ACOR owns a 1/30th of 1% of all oil & gas & associated hydrocarbon production under WA372 & WA 373.
SOURCE: Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd.