GAS company Beach Energy is moving to shore up the location of its next conventional exploration well, which is likely to be about 20 kilometres west of Penola.
The petroleum giant has revealed discussions with the landholder are likely to be begin shortly, followed by community consultation.
The Dombey-1 conventional onshore exploration program – a joint venture project with Cooper Energy – comes on the heels of the Haselgrove-3 commercial gas field discovery.
Beach received nearly $7m from the former Labor State Government to support the drilling costs of the Dombey-1 project.
Beach Energy regional manager Glenn Toogood said the process would be similar to the Haselgrove-3 project with community consultation sessions planned in the region.
He said the company was working to pinpoint the location of the new exploratory well and would begin discussions with landholders once that process was finalised.
“We have yet to have any discussions with a landholder,” Mr Toogood told The Border Watch.
The Beach spokesperson said the company would advertise the time and date of the community consultation sessions once they were finalised.
Beach announced in December last year it had begun preparations for drilling a conventional onshore gas exploration well in the Penola Trough, known as Dombey-1.
“The onshore Otway Basin in South Australia is a proven gas province close to existing infrastructure and pipeline networks,” according to the company.
Dombey-1 well is expected to be drilled west of Penola and proximate to Beach’s Katnook facility and pipeline network, as well as the South East Australia Gas gas transmission system.
The well will target conventional gas and gas liquids in the Pretty Hill Formation, a proven gas producing formation.
Success at Dombey-1 could lead to follow-up activity, including appraisal and development drilling in the Dombey Field.
Dombey-1 will not be fracture stimulated.
Meanwhile, Member for Barker Tony Pasin has stood by the Federal Government’s decision to plough millions of dollars into “accelerating” conventional gas production in the Penola district.
This follows Beach Energy receiving $6m to help progress the construction of a $22.6m new Katnook gas Professing Facility.
The current mothballed Katnook gas plant is not up to standard to process gas from the company’s new Haselgrove-3 discovery well south of Penola.
“To be clear, I do not support unconventional gas mining in the South East,” Mr Pasin said.
“This grant does not encourage unconventional gas mining.”
He said this grant – funded through the Gas Acceleration Program (GAP) – would process the recent discovery in the onshore Otway Basin.
“This gas will be extracted using conventional methods that have been used in the South East for decades,” Mr Pasin said.
He said the GAP was part of a suite of measures designed to improve the accessibility and price of domestic gas, which have been identified as key risks for Australian business competitiveness and cost of living pressures.
“A tight supply-demand outlook and other factors such as links to international export markets and ageing infrastructure are resulting in a higher ‘normal’ gas price and constrained availability,” the Liberal backbencher said.
“Higher energy costs for industry puts our local jobs at risk, as industry looks to move operations offshore.”
Mr Pasin said this grant would accelerate supply to the South East market, meaning more reliable and affordable energy for our industry, which in turn is helping keep these industries operating locally, meaning these jobs stayed in the South East.
