Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd. (ACOR) has announced that Baraka Petroleum Limited, the operator of EP 128,127,104 & 103, has stated that they are gearing up for an initial four-well drilling program in the Georgina Basin. Baraka has stated that it estimates resources within these prospects in excess of one billion barrels of oil.

EP 128, 127, 104 & 103 are located in the Georgina Basin at the border of Northern Territory & Queensland. EP 104 adjoins ATP-582, in which ACOR holds a 50% working interest. Drilling is expected to begin in February and will include two horizontal wells on EP 127 & 128 and two vertical wells on EP 104 & 103.

Baraka states that extensive core analysis of the basal Arthur Creek shale reservoir in the Macintyre-1 well on EP 127 indicates a potential bypassed unconventional pay zone analogous to the prolific Bakken Shale Formation in Southeast Canada & North Dakota.

The Baldwin-2 and Macintyre-2 wells will be drilled as horizontal wells into the Arthur Creek shale and be stimulated using multi-frac technology. The operator believes the use of multi-frac technology to test the shale oil zone would be the first time such technology has been used in oil shale exploration in Australia.

The multi-frac technology is widely used in North America to unlock unconventional reservoirs in shale oil zones in formations such as the Bakken shale.

The two vertical wells will focus on large anticlinorum structures updip from the Ross-1 well in EP103 and the Owen-2 well in EP104.

Maps detailing the four drilling locations as well as ACOR’s property

The operator of EP 128, EP 127, EP 104, & EP 103 states:

  • Lead A has possible estimated resources of approximately 432,000,000 barrels of oil.
  • Lead B has possible estimated resources of approximately 414,000,000 barrels of oil.
  • Lead C has possible estimated resources of approximately 112,000,000 barrels of oil.
  • Lead D has possible estimated resources of approximately 67,000,000 barrels of oil.

If the four wells are successful, Baraka plans to carry out a $44.8 million 20-well exploration drilling program.

The well locations and leads described above and on the maps are located on blocks EP 128, EP 127, EP 104, & EP 103 in which ACOR has no interest.

About the Georgina Basin

The Georgina Basin, which covers most of the central-eastern part of the Northern Territory, is one of the most prospective undeveloped onshore petroleum provinces in the Northern Territory & Queensland.

The basin is one of several large intracratonic basins found in central Australia that are filled mainly with Paleozoic and Precambrian sediments (about 1,000-5,000 metres thick). Intracratonic basins are worldwide in occurrence and are normally found within continental interiors and away from plate boundaries. Other well-known intracratonic basins are the highly productive Williston Basin (located in North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan) and the Parana Basin in South America. Both the Williston and the Georgina Basin areas contain massive source rocks. The Cambrian strata of the Arthur Creek (Georgina Basin) is considered to be similar to the Mississippian succession (Bakken Shale) of Western Canada & North Dakota that has produced more than ten tcf of gas and one billion bbls of oil.

Ryder Scott Company Petroleum Consultants independent evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of the Georgina Basin states that the Cambrian Thorntonia-Arthur Creek succession of the Georgina Basin possess all the required elements necessary for petroleum generation, migration and entrapment. All these elements are is believed to be found EP 103 and EP 104. Currently there is no production from the Georgina Basin, however analogous production occurs in the Amadeus Basin to the west and in other, similar, setting found elsewhere in the world. Structural leads within, and close to, Blocks EP 103 and EP 104 indicated closures covering between 6 and 130 km2. This suggests a potential range of individual pool and field sizes of between 4.2 x 106m3 (26.4 mmbo) and 91 106m3 (571.5 mmbo) of oil-in-place.

About ACOR’s ATP-582

ATP-582 is located in Queensland Australia with part of this giant oil & gas concession located in the Georgina Basin and part in the prolific Cooper/Eromanga Basin. The permit area covers approximately 6,716,000 gross acres.

ACOR management is very excited about the recent news and the upcoming drilling program to possibly identify a new look-a-like Bakken Shale play on the adjoining blocks west of ATP-582.

If the wells are successful, ACOR management & the ATP-JV Partner would immediately focus seismic and drilling plans on ATP-582 in the Northern part of ATP-582 in the deeper portions of the Toko Syncline, where the Arthur Creek Shale source rocks are interpreted to be the deepest and thickest.

ACOR management has also identified two additional prospects on the southern portion of ATP-582 from the 850 miles seismic data, owned by ACOR. The Samphire prospect covers approximately 3,800 acres and exhibits approximately 110 feet of closure. The Samphire West, which covers around 4,700 acres. If the Samphire prospect proves to be productive, a number of additional field discoveries may result from leads in the Southern part of ATP-582.