So, now that we are 99.8% certain that a PL is about to be...

So, now that we are 99.8% certain that a PL is about to be issued for the Surprise area of some 400,000 acres, where to from here? I'm itching to see the details of the JV as I think it will lay out a clear plan for us going forward. 400,000 acres is only a small portion of a single permit (EP115) in a single Basin (Amadeus) across our vast land holdings. But in comparison to other O&G companies in the Cooper Basin it is quite sizable!

I counted some 7-8 Prospects and Leads within the Production area that we can drill and quickly bring to production if a discovery is made. It is quite interesting to note that the pre drill estimate for Surprise-1 was a fully risked Undiscovered Oil Initially In Place (UOIIP) of 6mmbl, with an unrisked high estimate of 50mmbl of UOIIP. Our 2P for Surprise West was 2.1mmbl with an Oil Initially In Place (OIIP) of 6.42mmbl. Pretty accurate I'd say! Then we've got Surprise East which should be double the size of the West. The pre drill estimate for Johnstone West-1 was a fully risked UOIIP of 32mmbl, unrisked at 400mmbl of UOIIP. If Johnstone West can be proven to produce oil in future using different drilling techniques (eg; horizontal) then the size of the field is substantially bigger than Surprise, even at the fully risked end. I would assume that after Surprise East is developed, our next low risk target would be to revisit Johnstone West and try different drilling techniques.

The more I dig deeper the more I think that we are only starting to scratch the surface within our vast land holdings, and I'm only talking about conventional prospectivity at this stage. JH seemed pretty excited about the Pedirka Basin as well, with estimates of some 6 billion barrels of UOIIP across a few prospects and leads within the Pellinor blocks, of which we now enjoy a 44% interest and 100% of the remaining of EP97. In the Cooper Basin, where some 3,000 wells have been drilled so far and it supposed to be a matured and depleting Basin, the likes of SXY and DLS are still coming up with new discoveries that have increased their production rates many folds within the last few years, with plenty more yet to be drilled. So where are we at with only a few dozen wells drilled so far and oil and gas discoveries across as far as the Dingo fields to the Palm Valley, the Mereenie oil fields, and now Surprise ? And what if Mt Kitty turns out to be what we all hoped? What if a substantial discovery is also made in the Pedirka Basin? It could be a trifecta in betting terms!