Santos bounds over $12 on NT gas find By Alex Wilson September 30, 2005
Santos jack-up drill rig … the company's exploration program continues in the Timor Sea.
Shares in Santos shot to fresh heights yesterday after the oil and gas producer announced the discovery of a new gasfield off the coast of the Northern Territory.
Santos said drilling at its Caldita 1 exploration well in 137 metres of water had encountered a "significant hydrocarbon column in a high quality reservoir interval".
The company is now assessing the potential to develop the new field, in which it has a 40 per cent stake. US energy giant ConocoPhillips has 60 per cent.
The news helped Santos shares break the $12 mark for the first time and by the close of trade the stock had risen 68c or 5.88 per cent to $12.25, off the day's high of $12.47.
The Adelaide company said a drill stem test in the primary objective at Caldita had flowed gas at about 33 million cubic feet per day through a one-inch choke.
"This is an encouraging result and further evaluation will be carried out to assess the appraisal and development potential of Caldita and nearby resources," Santos managing director John Ellice-Flint said.
Mr Ellice-Flint has said in the past that a find at Caldita, 265 kilometres nor-nor-west of Darwin, could potentially be used to fuel the expansion of the Wickham Point processing plant near Darwin, part of the Bayu-Undan gas project in which the company has a stake.
But Intersuisse analyst Peter Arden said feeding Wickham Point was not the only option for gas from Caldita and the trend at the moment was for companies to look to develop fields on a stand-alone basis.
"There is certainly a strong trend to try to get the most out of these things these days, whether it be as liquids or some other way," he said.
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