Helium! What helium?

Jan 28, 2009 New geoscientific data released today has set Central Australia on a potential path of emerging as Australia's foremost supplier of the high-in-demand and premium priced inert gas, Helium, to global markets.

The findings - announced today by ASX-listed multi-energy explorer, Central Petroleum Limited (ASX:CTP)(PINK:CPTLF) - could see production of commercial volumes of Helium from two or more areas south of Alice Springs transported for export to Darwin where a new Helium extraction plant is already currently under construction as part of that city's expanding LNG hub. The BOC (now Linde Group) has announced plans to extract low concentrations of Helium from the dregs of gas processed in the Darwin LNG hub.

In a major announcement of its Helium prospects in the Red Centre, Central Petroleum said today the calibre of the data was such that the Company and its joint venture partner, He Nuclear Limited, now anticipated to drill test during 2009 up to two target areas located within key sub-salt petroleum plays in the Amadeus Basin, the Mt Kitty Prospect and the Magee Prospect.

The drilling plans followed a review of new seismic survey information over the areas acquired in 2008 by Central Petroleum and a reinterpretation of known well data from the Basin. The stratigraphy of the target areas includes sub-salt structures comparable to those in Siberia, China and Oman which host giant oil and gas fields and with similarities to structures in the southwest USA which historically have hosted the world's largest Helium production reservoirs.

Central Petroleum said today that leads and prospects outlined to date in the two target prospects indicated their potential to host up to 200 billion cubic feet of Helium in Undiscovered Gas Initially In Place (UGIIP)as well as 4.4. trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Helium currently commands around US$100 per thousand cubic feet, compared to around US$3.00 in Australia for equivalent volumes of natural gas.

"On test, in the Magee 1 well drilled in 1992, the area's Helium concentration has also shown to be in the order of 6.3% and if that is maintained commercially subject to exploration success, Central Australia could rank within the top 5% of world suppliers," Central Petroleum's Managing Director, Mr John Heugh, said today.

"Significantly, world production of Helium is currently less than 10 billion cubic feet per annum but demand is growing as historic emergency reserves have dwindled and the gas is increasingly being used in high technology applications and planned for fourth generation more environmentally friendly nuclear reactors," Mr Heugh said.

Unlisted Australian resources company, He Nuclear Limited, has funded 50% of pre-drilling seismic surveys, mapping analysis and will fund two wells, to earn a 25% interest in the two Helium-rich prospect blocks.

The targets comprise Central Petroleum's Mt Kitty prospect in EP125 and the Magee Prospect in EP82 - both in the Amadeus Basin and located within 250km kilometres south of Alice Springs.

"Salt as a sealing medium to trap large volumes of oil and gas takes on a more significant role in Central Australia as our review has confined many potential Helium target areas to depths of less than 3,000 metres," Mr Heugh said.

"This compares with overseas production reservoirs under salt layers many of which are at ultra-deep offshore depths many times greater than the onshore targets south of Alice Springs - so the task of exploration drilling and developing these Amadeus prospects will be far less expensive and technically easier," he said.

Mr Heugh said most predrilling seismic had now been completed by the joint venture on both Mt Kitty and Magee with drill locations currently being finalised.

In 2005, Central Petroleum signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BOC Global Helium (now Linde) - one of the world's largest international marketers and producers of Helium - to exchange information and work towards the joint exploitation of any successful Central operated Helium discoveries.