Some more info on our new permit from the archives...In...

Some more info on our new permit from the archives...

In Australia, Tangiers holds 90 per cent of WA-442-P and NT/P81 in the offshore Bonaparte Basin. This is shallow water and lies 250 km from Darwin, which is becoming something of an LNG hub. Here Tangiers has three opportunities. There’s the discovered Turtle Barnet oilfield, which was found in the 1980s and flowed up to 900 bpd of 38 degree API oil. “It could be a company maker in itself,” commented Ceglinski, before quickly moving onto the other two opportunities, which completely dwarf Turtle Barnet.

The Milligans Fan Oil Play has recently been assessed by independent consultants, who reckon there could be up to 1.5 billion barrels of oil in place. The gross mean unrisked prospective resource is estimated to be 218 million barrels of oil with the high side case of 505 million barrels of oil. “This is a substantial asset for us,” said Ceglinski, a corporate financier with almost 25 years in the natural resources business. “It’s the most exciting oil project in Australia right now.”

Then there’s Nova, where there could be almost 7 TCF of gas in place, and below that, Super Nova, which cold be even larger (although 10 per cent partner, Ansbachall, reckons Nova and Super Nova could be oil-charged, which, if proven by the drillbit, would make this the largest oil field in Australia).

The numbers are eye-watering but, remain just that, numbers, until tested by the drillbit. Tangiers has ambitious plans to drill a concept well, Nova-1, to test each of the horizons - Turtle Barnet, Milligans Fan and Nova and Super Nova – with one US$60 million hole down to 6,000 metres. The Perth-based company plans to shoot 3D seismic towards the end of this year and farm down its equity to nearer 45 per cent before moving ahead with drilling in 2013. “We have a very active data room right now,” said Ceglinski.