News: Finder has entered into a farm out agreement which provides for Sasol Peroleum Australia Limited, a wholly owned subsidary of Sasol Petroleum International., to earn 45% in AC/P 52.
Highly Prospective – LNG Gas potential
55% Finder Exploration & Operator
45% Sasol Petroleum Australia Limited
Surface area: ~2,170km2
Water depth: 450-1,330m
Exploration Permit AC/P 52 was awarded to Finder in June 2009. The Permit is located within Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands and is between the northern limits of highly prospective Browse Basin and the southern boundary of the Ashmore Platform, ~300km off the coast of north-western Australia. The area lies directly west of Finder’s (40%) AC/P 36 exploration Permit and approximately 25km north of the Argus gas field.
Potential Play-types
(i) Oxfordian sandstones within fault blocks, and
(ii) Middle to Lower Triassic fault blocks (Nome Formation).
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Geology of the northern Browse Basin
The current form of the Browse Basin is the result of multiple periods of extension, subsidence and minor compression, associated with the fragmentation of eastern Gondwana followed by compression in the uppermost Miocene. This is a proven hydrocarbon Basin, delivering both oil and gas discoveries. Refer to the schematic cross section below for a generalisation of the key play concepts.
AC/P 52 – North Browse. Preliminary 3D visualisation of the Cartier West 3D seismic survey. Oxfordian (Jurassic) unconformity pSTM depth converted surface.
The Cronus prospect was initially indentified on the pre-existing sparse 2D grid. Cronus was assessed as low risk for:
- charge (charge from the same source cell that charges Argus);
reservoir (as the Plover is estimated to be some 800 metres below mudline shallower than the recent successful wells at Poseidon);andseal (the Jamison Formation is estimated to be 250 metres thick over Cronus, as compared to the 40 metres at Torosa that seals a significant hydrocarbon column). The critical uncertainty was the structural size and the 2010 3D seismic acquisition program has significantly reduced this uncertainty on structure, delivering a “highside” resource outcome, as evidenced in the 3D visualisation above.