Tap intersects 100m of gas at Zola-1PETER KLINGER, The West Australian March 9, 2011, 12:40 pm Send
UPDATE 12.40pm: Investor hopes that Tap Oil has made a big discovery in the Carnarvon Basin have received a boost after the Perth junior said it and its partners had intersected more than 100m of gas-bearing sandstone.
Having placed its shares in a trading halt this morning at 98.5 pending news of the Zola-1 well, Tap followed up several hours later with first indications of the size of the potential find.
The well is targeting a prospect Tap (10 per cent) and partners Apache (30.25 per cent), Santos (24.75 per cent), OMV (20 per cent) and Nippon Oil (15 per cent) believe could contain as much as two trillion cubic feet of gas.
Tap had excited investors a month ago when it relayed well operator Apache's news that drilling had hit gas.
No further details were available at the time, and since then cyclone activity in WA's North West disrupted further drilling.
But today Tap said that drilling so far had intersected more than 100m of gas-bearing sandstone at a depth of 4.4km.
Drilling is continuing as the well moves through other geological formations before reaching the target depth of about 5km.
Tap's shares soared 7.1 per cent to 98.5 this morning before the company placed its shares in a trading halt ahead of releasing the Zola-1 update.
Although Tap is the smallest of the Zola well participants, it is also set to benefit the most if drilling confirms a gas find of 2tcf.
The Zola partners are already talking about potential development options, which include offering the gas to the Chevron-led Wheatstone LNG venture or producing it through several Apache-Santos domestic gas operations.
Resuming from the trading halt, Tap shares were up six cents, or 6.52 per cent, to 98 cents at 12.40pm.
