The National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) has given its approval to Cue Energy Resources for its application to suspend its Permit Year 3 work program commitment for WA-359-P and extension of the permit term, off Western Australia.
The Year 3 work commitment comprises the drilling of one exploration well, which is now due by April 2018. The permit term has also been extended until April 2018.
WA-359-P is located in the Carnarvon basin and contains the world-class Ironbark gas prospect. Ironbark is a giant, Mungaroo formation prospect with multiple objectives. The structure is a simple horst block with symmetric rollover, mapped as 140-400sq km in area with a best technical estimate of more than 15 Tcf of unrisked prospective gas resource based on internal technical assessment by Cue.
Cue is currently undertaking a farm-out process to find a suitable joint venture partner to participate in the drilling of a well targeting the ironbark prospect. The extension of the permit tenure will assist Cue to advance this process. Several international oil companies are evaluating the opportunity, the firm said.
Cue is the operator of WA-359-P with 100% stake.