Acer Energy eyes increased resource and cash flow from new...

Acer Energy eyes increased resource and cash flow from new target zone in existing oil field
Thursday, June 07, 2012 by Bevis Yeo Acer Energy (ASX: ACN) has identified multiple additional potential pay zones at its Flax oil field in the Cooper Basin following a successful re-entry of the Flax-1 well.

This resulted in additional production from an unstimulated 4.5 metre mid-Patchawarra pay interval – the accessible portion of a broader 9 metre interval that had not being previously produced.

Acer noted that this interval represented a new productive reservoir that has not been

included in the current independent resource estimate of 15 million barrels of in place oil for the Flax field.

It added the post test oil and gas composition remained largely unchanged, confirming the new reservoir contains hydrocarbons of a consistent ratio to that of the lower productive reservoirs.

Of most interest to the company is the fact the interval appears to be present in other wells and could increase the size of the Flax field resource if confirmed.

Acer noted that more recoverable resource from an already developed and producing oil field represents the lowest cost, lowest risk and highest margin opportunity for shareholders.

Foward plans

To fully test and validate this new resource, Acer plans to fracture simulate and test the entire 9 metre interval in both Flax-1 and the correlating reservoir within other Flax wells.

It will also complete all engineering and design work to test additional Patchawarra zones identified within the Flax wells and use recently acquired 3D seismic data to identify lateral extent and potential new well locations.

Patchawarra

The coal and carbonaceous shale of the Patchawarra Formation represent the principal source rocks of the Cooper Basin.

It has also emerged as a potential unconventional play with the South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Resources and companies such as Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) believing that it hosts a basin centred gas accumulation that could change the East Coast gas market.