ConocoPhillips Australia has issued a buyout notice to 3D Energi relating to the latter’s 20% interest in offshore exploration permit VIC/P79 in Victoria’s Otway Basin, following earlier notifications concerning alleged defaults.
3D Energi, formerly known as 3D Oil, said it is assessing the validity of both the default and buyout notices.
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The notice initiates a process under the joint operating agreement that can allow ConocoPhillips, as the operator of VIC/P79, to acquire 3D Energi’s interest at a fair market value, to be determined.
Once that value is established, ConocoPhillips has 30 days to elect whether to proceed with the purchase.
If ConocoPhillips does not exercise the buyout right, the agreement provides for other remedies. These include potential dilution of 3D Energi’s stake, with provisions available to both ConocoPhillips and Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC).
ConocoPhillips currently has a 51% stake, while KNOC owns a 29% stake in the block.
VIC/P79 covers approximately 2,575km² in the shallow waters of the Otway Basin, with water depths ranging from roughly 40m in the north to around 100–200m in the south.
The permit is near discovered gas fields including La Bella and producing developments along the Pecten High trend, which are linked by pipeline to the Athena gas plant operated by Cooper Energy.
3D Energi obtained the permit through the 2020 Gazettal round and later farmed down its position to ConocoPhillips.
The transaction was completed in March 2023 after the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Authority approved the transfer of title documentation, leaving ConocoPhillips with an 80% participating interest and operatorship.
Under the farmout terms, 3D Energi received $3m (A$4.22m) and ConocoPhillips agreed to fund up to $35m towards drilling costs for an exploration well. ConocoPhillips offloaded 29% of its stake to KNOC in May 2025.
The initial work programme for the VIC/P79 permit included reprocessing 630km² of 3D seismic data and drilling one exploration well by February 2025.
On the exploration front, in November 2025, ConocoPhillips reported that the Essington-1 well encountered gas indications in two target reservoirs, Waarre A and Waarre C.
Early interpretation of logging and wireline data indicated that the main Waarre A interval contains an estimated 62.6m of gross hydrocarbon-bearing section, while the Waarre C interval adds a further best-estimate gross column of around 33.2m.
The find lies roughly 53km off the coast near Port Campbell, Victoria, and around 12km from established producing gas wells.
Separately, in January this year, 3D Energi announced that the Charlemont‑1 well within the same permit had also yielded a gas find.
A full wireline logging suite has now been run over the Waarre sandstone sequence (A, B and C) to determine hydrocarbon presence, quality and extent.
The Otway Basin is a major gas-producing province covering approximately 155,000km², mostly offshore, extending across parts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, with more than 200 exploration wells drilled onshore and offshore.
