Shares in Carnarvon Petroleum went for their second big run in a week yesterday it reported the discovery of more oil and gas at its minority-owned Dorado-1 well off the Pilbara in northwestern WA.
Carnarvon told the ASX yesterday that on top of confirming last week’s announcement of oil discovery, the latest results from the Quadrant Energy-led well reported the presence of gas and condensate.
The explorer’s closed at 45 cents, up 25%. That pts the shares up 157% in the past five trading days and more than 233% so far in July.
"The results have confirmed the oil discovery in the Caley Member and have confirmed the presence of gas and condensate in the top of the Baxter Member that was drilled into to enable the evaluation of the Caley Member,” Carnarvon told the market yesterday.
"Light oil has been recovered from a sand in the upper most section of Caley that is in addition to previous samples recovered. This work was undertaken to provide additional information across a broader area of the Caley and further enhances the joint ventures’ confidence in the results to date.
"Gas and condensate samples were also recovered from a good quality reservoir in the top of the Baxter containing an estimated gross hydrocarbon package of 21 metres and a net pay thickness of 10.5 metres.
Quadrant group executive subsurface Fred Wehr last week described the initial oil discovery in the Bedout sub-basin as “staggering” and something he’d never seen in a 35-year career (according to reports in the West Australian newspaper).
The private equity-owned Quadrant (Macquarie Group is a major shareholder) company has an 80% stake in the prospect.
The joint venture last week reported an 80-metre net oil column.
Drilling had not been completed and “this is therefore an interim net pay result and may or may not represent a gas cap to further oil resources”.
Carnarvon said the plan was to deepen the well to 4,550 metres.
