From Energy News Premium today. Headline and first line seem...

From Energy News Premium today. Headline and first line seem contradictory:


Bauer-8 extends Bauer field
Friday, 31 August 2012
James McGrath

THE success of Bauer-8 has not extended the northern boundary of the Bauer oil field in the Cooper Basin but will lead to a reserves uplift for both Beach Energy and Drillsearch.
The well was cased and suspended as a future producer after hitting 10m of net Namur oil pay over an 18m gross interval.

While the well only hit a 3m interval of poor quality Birkhead formation pay, the joint venture is more excited by the Namur, with both the Namur and McKinlay reservoirs hitting 5m to 6m higher than expected.

The drilling effectively confirms that the Namur pay zone remains thick on the northern extension of the field.

However, Beach Energy is already considering drilling another two Bauer wells by the end of the year to see if the JV can extend the field even further.

While the well has been cased and suspended, joint venture partner Drillsearch said that flow rates should be in line with previous Bauer wells, in particular the Bauer-1 well which flowed at 6048 barrels of oil per day.

While the result is thought to have appositive impact on Beach Energy’s reserves, Drillsearch will be undertaking a remapping of the Bauer field and has engaged Gaffney, Cline and Associates to conduct an independent reserves review to take in results from Bauer 6, 7, and 8.

Three days ago Drillsearch told investors it had boosted its proved plus probable reserves by 47% to 12.5 million barrels of oil equivalent on the back of discoveries on the western flank of the Cooper and wet gas drilling at PEL 106B.

About 2.2MMbbls of this uplift was attributed to Bauer-5.

Drillsearch said the review should be done by the end of next month, with managing director Brad Lingo calling Bauer-8 an unqualified success.

“This is an absolutely fantastic result,” he said.

“It was only four days ago that we announced a major increase of 2.2MMBbls in gross 2P reserves for the Bauer oil field, based only on the results of the Bauer-5 well.

“This drilling program goes right to the heart of Drillsearch’s strategy of delivering in reserves, production, and cash flow.”