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heres some more info that you will find iteresting,
Gas
Although monetising gas in central Australia could be difficult due to a lack of markets, one option could be to take over after Santos and Magellan (the Palm Valley and Mereenie prospect partners who are exporting gas via the Alice to Darwin pipeline) run out of gas. “They’ve got enough gas to supply the current contract until about 2009”, he said. “There are limited amounts of gas drilled reserves in the Amadeus that they can tap into and, subject to listing, shortly Central will control all of the most prospective Amadeus Basin acreage … subject to the listing we’ll acquire about 80-90% of the total acreage in the Amadeus Basin, so there’s no other gas exploration of real substance that Santos and Magellan can move into.” However, this could be as late as 2009 or 2010 and by then some of the offshore discoveries might have been brought on stream to supply Darwin with sales gas.

Central is therefore considering two approaches. The company could “discover a gas reserve of sufficient size to warrant connecting it to the pipeline to Moomba” – this discovery would have to be in the order of 200 Bcf to justify a connection. The other option outlined in a pre-feasibility study by Holt Campbell and Payton, based upon notional gas discovery and conversion by GTL (gas to liquids technology) into syn-fuel of two main types: Low sulphur, low pollution synthetic diesel and jet fuel; with naphtha as a co-product. “All three products could be produced in situ in the Amadeus Basin or anywhere in central Australia close to a rail facility and railed out to either Darwin or Adelaide”, explained Mr Heugh. “Our independent report on this indicates that probably most, if not all, of that product would be absorbed by the domestic market, particularly now that Australia is forecast to be only 40% self-sufficient in oil by the year 2010.”

“There have been a lot of developments in GTL technology and there’s a huge demand for low sulphur diesel throughout the world … and this trend is coming here.” This particular type of diesel is very environmentally friendly and can be mixed with conventional diesel to make reduce pollution at an economical price: “About 20% of syn-fuel diesel will get you inside all of the environmental legislations that are planned until at least the year 2010. We think that is a very positive development.” Central has also lodged a provisional patent application for the novel application of GTL in central Australia on specific gas reserves.


Seismic


The existing data for the Pedirka and Amadeus Basins was reprocessed and re-mapped by Troy Ikoda, and Young Geoconsultants. Dr Askin has examined some of the data in detail for DHIs. Approximately 150 to 200 km of seismic was reprocessed over Avalon and Blamore, whereas all the available seismic in the Amadeus Basin was reprocessed in two stages – the first stage was undertaken by the NTGS) as part of an initiative by Young Geoconsultants. “Then we asked Young Geoconsultants to take those results and remap the four prospects that we’re interested in”, he said. “In fact, they remapped half a dozen prospects that we brought down to four prospects that we wanted to drill in the Amadeus.”

In addition to reprocessing existing data, the company wants to acquire additional seismic over the Amadeus acreage. “One of the keys to success in the Amadeus is fracture prediction, so we need more accurate data over the four prospects we’d like to drill”, he explained”, not only to be able to identify the biggest concentration of fractures in the structures, but also because of the enormity of the structures – Mount Kitty is 500 km2 of potential closure, Ooraminna and Waterhouse are up to 300 km2 and Johnston is 180 km2.

“Whereas our Amadeus Basin acreage requires additional seismic before deciding where to drill, in the case of the Avalon and Blamore prospects in the Pedirka Basin, we believe we are ready to drill.” Central is hoping to drill all three oil prospects before July/August next year: “By then we also hope to be gathering more seismic over some of the larger gas prospects in the Amadeus Basin.”


Joint Ventures


Central Petroleum has entered into a Joint Venture with White Sands Petroleum which Mr Heugh said would give the company access to their high-tech, highly mobile hydraulic top-drive rig, in return for an interest in the permit. ”It is capable of drilling to depths of over 3000 m and only takes about 12 truckloads of equipment to get in and set up, thereby saving money on mobilisation and de-mobilisation. The rig also only requires about half the crew of a conventional rig. Of course, the main advantage is … the ability to access a drilling rig at all, which is becoming increasingly difficult”, stated Mr Heugh.

Central was at one stage considering perhaps acquiring a rig of its own, but will continue with the White Sands deal as long as it works to the company’s satisfaction. “These are the sorts of deals we want to do to give us some sort of strategic advantage rather than just simply saving money on exploration, which is good, but it’s not the only reason why we want to do a farm-out deal”.

Under the terms of the farm-out deal White Sands will fund 22.5% of the costs of drilling two wells in EP93 (Avalon and Blamore) to win a 15% interest in the permit, as well as funding 22.5% of one well in EP92 and PLA77 to win 15% of the permits.

Central also has a letter of agreement with Perth-based Terrex Seismic Pty Ltd, who will have a crew available for the company in March or April 2006. “The Alice Springs-based environmental consulting group (Low Consultants ) that know the area and the local people very well, something which is beneficial when it comes to remote acreage such as this will be available around September or October of this year to do the reconnaissance environmental survey”, he said.

Timing is everything

The paper Petroleum Resource Potential of the Amadeus Basin by John Warburton, Titus Murray and Torey Marshall will be presented at the Central Australian Basins Symposium in Alice Springs, August 16th – 18th. “So it’s good timing for us”, claimed Mr Heugh. “It’s certainly going to open a lot of people’s eyes about the Amadeus Basin.”

Central Petroleum has to list by a certain date to acquire the acreage in the Amadeus Basin. In addition to the Amadeus acreage, the company also has two applications in the Lander Trough, one in the Georgina Basin and three in the Pedirka Basin, one of which has been granted. Each of the permits has an individual work program, which increases in expenditure from $100-150,000 in the first year to perhaps
$400-500,000 in the second year, and is a contingent commitment.

“If all the permits are granted at the same time on the day of a succesful float, we have enough money to enable us to evaluate data, drill those six wells and acquire additional seismic.”

Central would then make the decisions on which permits to keep, which to farm out and perhaps which to get rid of. “The first two years of activity will be a major screening process for us to delineate where we’re likely to have the most success and to bring in other joint venture partners.”