A drilling success in Australia’s Canning basin revealed the promise of a whole new oil province, according to the operator, Apache. Apache’s Phoenix South 1 well, located offshore, encountered four separate intervals and in doing so has unearthed a potential 300mln barrel oil resource. Apache said the oil and reservoir quality observed in the well point to Phoenix South being a commercial find.
“If these results are borne out by further appraisal drilling, Phoenix South may represent a new oil province for Australia,” Apache’s executive vice president Thomas Voytovich said.
It comes as the American oil producer is mulling the sale of certain international assets, and whilst it may not be sufficiently big to ‘move the needle’ for Apache the result has certainly had a material impact on Aussie listed venture partner Carnarvon Petroleum which jumped nearly 200% on the news.
The discovery is also likely to be of interest for AIM and ASX quoted Oilex (LON:OEX) which has interests in the South-West portion of the Canning basin.
OEX Price at posting:
17.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
