From UPI
Australian energy company Melbana said the Beehive prospect is potentially the largest untapped prospect in the country.
Seismic surveys are underway and on pace for completion by the end of August to get a better understanding of the reserve potential. Melbana stated that backers have exercised their rights to drill into Beehive later.
“The Beehive prospect is potentially the largest undrilled hydrocarbon prospect in Australia,” Melbana’s company statement read.
Melbana also stated that Beehive data will provide operators with a better idea of where to tap the first exploration well. The reserve is located near existing oil and gas infrastructure, supporting future value. The Australian government signed off on the environment permits to survey Beehive in May.
The Beehive prospect may be on par with the Tengiz basin in the Kazakh waters of the Caspian Sea, one of the largest ultra-deep water fields in the world. Combined with nearby developments, Tengiz produced over 2 billion barrels of oil over the last six years.
Santos and Total have the option to take an 80 percent participating interest in a permit that Melbana says may be a “multi-billion barrel” prospect.
In June, Australian energy company Woodside handed out a contract to geophysical survey company Ocean Energy to provide data on the deepwater field off the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia. Net reserves in the Scarborough area, which consists of three natural gas fields, are more than 9 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.
