https://thewest.com.au/business/energy/funding-game-changer-dorad...

https://thewest.com.au/business/energy/funding-game-changer-dorado-a-nice-problem-ng-b88957561z

Funding game-changer Dorado a nice problem

Adrian Cook says there are many prospects around Roc and Dorado.Picture: Sharon Smith

The Dorado oil field that two years ago was not even a blip on Carnarvon Petroleum’s radar screen is now giving the North West Shelf explorer the pleasant problem of how to fund production as soon a possible.
Dorado has focused the WA petroleum industry on the advantages of oil projects that are in many ways the opposite of the LNG projects of the past decade.
“What I like about oil, you get them on reasonably quick, straightforward to build, payback is quick,” Carnarvon managing director Adrian Cook said.


When the Dorado discovery was announced in July, Carnarvon’s share price, which had hovered around 14¢ all year, jumped to as high as 70¢ on the back of its 20 per cent share of the Quadrant Energy-operated field.
After a disappointing drilling result at the nearby Phoenix South well, the share price has since settled to close at 32¢ yesterday.
Santos struck a deal last month to buy Quadrant from its private equity backers for $US2.15 billion ($3.02 billion).
Mr Cook told the Good Oil Conference in Perth yesterday that having “a company with a balance sheet is absolutely music to our ears”.
He said Santos wanted to make a final investment decision on Dorado in 2020 and his board was keen for that to happen.
Before the Dorado discovery, Carnarvon’s most likely first production was from its 100 per cent-owned 31 million barrel Buffalo oil field in East Timorese waters.
Mr Cook said cash flow from the two oil projects, Dorado and Buffalo, could finance Carnarvon’s third possible tranche of production, gas and condensate from the Dorado and Roc fields. It estimated its share of the resource to be equivalent to 39 million barrels of oil.
“Between looking to drill Buffalo next year, a couple of appraisal wells into Dorado, hopefully Roc South, we’ve got a really active program.”
Mr Cook said funding the initial two oil projects would be a focus for him. “That's a nice problem now to be solving,” he said.
Part of the solution may be to bring partners into the Buffalo development. Mr Cook said he preferred that Carnarvon remained as operator.
He said there was a plethora of prospects and leads around Roc and Dorado. Carnarvon planned to release volume estimates for two, Roc South and Pavo, in a few weeks.
The estimate for the third prospect, Apus, might be delayed. “The numbers are so big that we have to do more work on them because they are almost unbelievable,” he said.