Emerging oil and gas company WHL Energy has been awarded the VIC/P67 exploration permit by the Victoria Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority, located in the Otway Basin, offshore Melbourne, Australia.
The prospect contains the La Bella gas field, plus a 2C contingent resource of 158 PJ gas and 1.2 million barrels of condensate.
WHL Energy identified and targeted VIC/P67 on the back of its known reserves and upside potential.
The company noted that recent public briefings by Santos, Origin and Beach Energy suggest gas demand will increase significantly, with pricing forecast to triple to a price range of $6 to $9 per gigajoule.
Steve Noske, WHL managing director, believes that this news will work in his company’s favour.
"With East coast gas deals now being completed at oil linked pricing we have confidence that we can realise the significant value in our VIC/P67 acreage that includes La Bella, a ready to develop gas field," said Noske.
"The company is aware of the considerable interest to the oil and gas industry of the VIC/P67 given its proximity to existing development infrastructure, including the Santos-operated Casino development, the Origin-operated Otway gas project, the BHPB-operated Minerva development and TRU Energy Iona gas plant."
WHL said that areas outside of the La Bella prospects had only been lightly explored, thereby offering scope for the permit’s broader exploration potential.
