WELL FARE: Drilling for shale oil has become a major industry in the US. Picture: Bloomberg
MOOMBA-191 is unlikely to pop up regularly as an answer on pub trivia nights - though it could feature, perhaps, if such games become part of the night-time fun at Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conferences.
Moomba-191, a gas well drilled by Santos in the Cooper Basin in Outback South Australia, will, however, go down in the annals of Australian exploration as the country's first commercial shale gas well.
But does it herald a shale oil and gas revolution in Australia? Will we be like the US, where in the space of a decade improved techniques for producing both oil and gas from shale have spawned a multibillion-dollar industry and raised the possibility that the US could become energy self-sufficient?
A bevy of explorers in addition to Santos, including Brisbane-based Senex Energy and Drillsearch Energy - which have staked their claims in the great shale race - certainly hope so.
If they are right, Queensland and South Australia - best placed to take advantage of any shale gas boom - will do very nicely.
Drillsearch and Senex have shown they are prepared to bet real money on those prospects, both courting fellow explorer Acer Energy, with Drillsearch having lobbed a $118 million bid and Senex having taken a 6.4 per cent stake in Acer to ensure it has a seat at the table.
Santos drilled Moomba-191 not far from its Moomba gas processing hub in northern South Australia. It flowed a solid 2.6 million standard cubic feet of gas a day, and is being linked into the Moomba gas gathering system.
There has been debate about whether Australian shales - which occur in basins across the continent - will prove as productive as some in the US.
The Santos well was highly encouraging. And among the converted there is little doubt that shale will eventually prove at least as important a fuel as coal seam gas - a big call - both to the domestic market and as a feed stock to supplement gas supply for LNG projects.
The potential for shale basins to produce significant oil and gas volumes is one reason for the interest in Acer. It has exploration areas in the Cooper, which straddles the SA and Queensland borders - with some of its areas shared with Senex, which along with Drillsearch also has Cooper Basin ground.
The lure of what is known as "unconventional gas" was also part of the the reason billionaire Clive Palmer recently made a play for board control at Central Petroleum, now run by former Queensland Gas Company chief Richard Cottee - who spent some time at Senex before falling out with that group's board.
Cottee and Palmer recently buried the hatchet, but interest in Central's huge exploration areas - which stretch well into the Northern Territory - remained.
And Santos has farmed in to a large parcel of Central's ground in the Territory's Amadeus and Pedirka basins - thus relieving Central of the necessity to come up with cash to keep up with its committed exploration expenditure there.
Among other companies active in the Cooper and nearby basins are Beach Energy, Strike Energy, Gold Coast-based Icon Energy and Cooper Energy. And exploration is also under way in a suite of other shale-prone areas, from the Perth to the Georgina, Canning and Galilee basins.
All the explorers seeking shale oil and gas are happy, of course, to find conventional hydrocarbons. Beach, Senex, Cooper, Central and Icon have all participated in conventional oil finds - which are significantly easier and therefore less expensive to get into production. Likewise with conventional gas.
Production from shale generally requires expensive horizontal drilling, and the subsequent fracturing of the shale to liberate the hydrocarbons.
"Fracking," of course, has become a controversial process - though with shales generally very deep, and in Australia generally in remote areas, like the Cooper, it is unlikely to cause the furore seen in some places overseas like the US.
The Cooper has become a major focus for shale gas explorers, just as it is for those seeking conventional oil and gas, because it has a huge gas and oil gathering system, after 40 years of confidential production.
AUSSIE PLAYERS
SANTOS
* Drilled Australia's first commercial shale gas well, Moomba-191
DRILLSEARCH ENERGY
* Recently lobbed $118m bid for Acer Energy
SENEX ENERGY
* Potential bidder for Acer with 6.42% stake
COOPER ENERGY
* Could also join a bidding war for Acer
CENTRAL PETROLEUM
* Has attracted billionaire Clive Palmer to its share register
BEACH ENERGY
* Holds interests in 300-plus tenements in Australia and overseas
STRIKE ENERGY
* Has interests in Cooper Basin and US shale projects
ICON ENERGY
* Actively exploring for shale gas in Queensland
EXOMA ENERGY
* In league with Chinese energy giant CNOOC is exploring in the Galilee Basin area
WESTSIDE CORP
* Initially targetting CSG in the Galilee and will later assess shale gas potential.
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