Carnarvon Petroleum and its Quadrant-Carnarvon joint venture (JV) have announced a significant oil discovery in the Caley Member of Dorado-1 well in offshore Western Australia.
The company recovered light oil from a reservoir with 96.1m gross hydrocarbon package and 79.6m of net pay thickness in highly porous and permeable sands.
To confirm the findings, wireline testing was carried out at the well after drilling to approximately 4,044m in depth through an 8.5m hole. The well is reported to be in a hydrocarbon-bearing column.
Upon using wireline logging tools, decent reservoir characteristics were observed, and permeabilities were found to be 100 millidarcys (mD) to 1,000mD in the Caley hydrocarbon zone.
It is said that the reservoir quality was further strengthened by rapid extraction time for oil samples and high mobility during formation testing.
Carnarvon Petroleum managing director Adrian Cook said: “This is a significant discovery given the quantum of the net pay thickness, the quality of the oil and the extremely good reservoir characteristics.

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By GlobalData“Currently, we estimate the net oil pay is around 80m, with more drilling still to come this is very exciting for Carnarvon Petroleum.”
The company is planning to continue the drilling programme through the Baxter, Crespin and Milne Members.
During drilling in the Caley Member, Baxter was found to have an additional hydrocarbon accumulation, which has yet to be fully assessed.
The company is planning to deepen the well to around 4,550m to evaluate the new Baxter sand discovery and other secondary targets in Crespin and Milne.