stokes update

Stokes Bay-1 Testing Set to Resume
Summary
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Testing programme at Stokes Bay-1 set to resume during August
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Presence of both porosity and significant permeability in the Nullara reef section is encouraging
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The well also encountered two sands with oil and gas shows in the Lower Anderson Formation
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Testing at Stokes Bay will herald an active September quarter for FAR with testing at Stokes Bay-1, two wells at NE Waller, Texas and one well at Lake Long in Louisiana
Stokes Bay, EP 104, Canning Basin, WA (FAR 8%)
Testing of Stokes Bay-1
As the wet season ends and the dry season gets underway, FAR looks forward to resumption of the test programme at Stokes Bay-1 likely to commence during August.
The Stokes Bay-1 well which was completed for testing in November 2007 after intersecting a cavernous Nullara Formation limestone reservoir where all drilling fluids were lost into the formation together with high reservoir pressures being recorded. The lost circulation zone is suggestive of a porous and permeable reservoir capable of hosting hydrocarbons. The presence of both porosity and significant permeability in the Nullara reef section is encouraging. Development of vugular porosity in this section is a well recognised play, having previously been the target of exploration in the Basin, and hosts oil production at Blina some 100km to the SE.
Testing of the well was curtailed due to the onset of the Kimberley wet season. Should the well be commercially productive better access facilities would be constructed to allow year round production.
Nullara Formation Potential
At Stokes Bay-1 the Nullara trend of hydrocarbons could extend 4.5 kms to the south east to Point Torment-1 (where Nullara limestones flowed 134,000 cubic feet of gas per day with a trace of oil) and up to 7kms to the north west where the Pinnacle Fault curves to the west. The trend is bounded to the southwest by the Pinnacle Fault where the Nullara limestones dip steeply into the basin and were intersected in Valentine-1 some 650 metres deeper than Stokes Bay-1. For the trap to be effective, the Nullara Trend must also be stratigraphically trapped updip and to the north east by either tight limestones or lagoonal shales.
The Company is looking forward to recommencing testing of the Stokes Bay-1 Nullara Formation where it is 80 metres high to the Nullara gas test at Point Torment-1. There is drilled to date a 40 to 45 metre intersection of the Nullara limestones in Stokes Bay-1.
The areal closure could be up to 17km2. The testing to date has not provided any formation fluids from the Nullara and the presence of hydrocarbons and the extent of the reservoir parameters will be determined by the planned testing of the well.