6500 sq km on trend and next to Dorado., page-19

3D Oil seeks farm-in partner for promising Bedout discovery


3D managing director Noel Newell

• While other players pulled their heads in amid the oil price downturn, Bass Strait explorer 3D Oil branched out in exactly the right spot and secured a plot in the Bedout sub-basin off Western Australia.

The find is near the Quadrant/Carnarvon top-shelf Dorado discovery made in July.
It is shaping up as one of the biggest discoveries off the northwest and the first large field found in the region in 30 years.
Carnarvon last Monday released a contingent (2C) resource of 171 million barrels for the find, and reminded the market “it is common for additional resources to be discovered in the surrounding area after a large discovery”.
This was to whet investor appetite for Carnarvon’s potential prospects, but it also suits 3D executive chairman Noel Newell nicely.
Melbourne-based 3D acquired the WA-527-P permit, whose border is about 80km from Dorado.
Last week, Santos boss Kevin Gallagher talked up the potential in Dorado and the Bedout Basin after outlaying $2.9 billion for the business that owns 80 per cent of the Dorado project.
Proving fortune can favour the brave, Santos did so in an offshore auction round amid low oil prices where it was the only bidder for any permits. 3D Oil is looking for a farm-in partner with deeper pockets to finance a first stage of exploration, with a view to drilling in 2020.
Last week, 3D said new analysis of the plot using existing data gave a prospective resource estimate of between 90 million and 1.138 billion barrels of oil equivalent, with a best estimate of 349 million barrels.
It’s very early days yet, which is why 3D’s market value is only $40m, after having tripled its share price on the find to 17c in the past month.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...y/news-story/d4936cba4a05af2f9252136cb5d13f27