I don't think Santos will be confident drilling sub-salt with a 10,000 psi rig any more, it's just not worth the risk. They didn't even get to the primary target and already they used up their entire safety margin.
If the gas is a proper gas column then no, there is no way to drill somewhere with less overpressure. The overpressure will be pervasive.
Getting a rig built seems highly unlikely and not worth it for potentially one well. Even Strike's West Erregulla well, which is the deepest well ever drilled in Australia, is only around 7000 psi, so there is really limited use for a rig greater than 10,000 psi. I think a couple of the bigger rigs in Australia (including Strike's rig) could drill Dukas if they had their BOPs upgraded, but with Strike's success and a few deep wells being drilled in Qld chasing backfill for the LNG plants, I think they will be booked out for quite a while.
And Dukas isn't even that high on STO's priority list, so I think we will be waiting a while before we see re-entry of Dukas.
CTP Price at posting:
18.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
