reality ouch, page-30

http://www.pesa.com.au/publications/pesa_news/april_04/pesanews_6928.html

Santos History

Sprigg ended his association with the Delhi/Santos partnership in the late 1950s but his perseverance bore fruit on New Year's Eve of 1963 when natural gas flowed from the Gidgealpa-2 well at a rate of more than 8,500 cubic metres per day.


We didn't expect it to grow that much at the time. Back then, only one in six wells ever produced anything. There were a lot of dry wells in those days. The technology has improved? so they're not so much shooting in the dark anymore. That's what it was, really.

"The geologists and the geophysicists guessed a fair bit? a few of them (the wells) were flukes. "At Strzelecki, for instance, they were drilling for gas and found oil."


He still works for the company as administration manager for the Cooper Basin and has been continually employed with Santos since he started off in the kitchens at Moomba in February 1967.

http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/41590/mj42_50th_wilkatana.pdf