BP kicks off Ironbark drilling operations

Oil major BP has started drilling the Ironbark-1 well located offshore Western Australia following the receipt of regulatory approvals and mobilization of a rig.

BP received final approvals from Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) to drill the Ironbark-1 well back in September 2020.

The well is located in WA-359-P where BP is the operator and Cue Energy is one of its partners.

The exploration permit is located in the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia, approximately 50km from existing North West Shelf LNG infrastructure.

According to Cue Energy’s statement on Monday, the drilling of the Ironbark-1 exploration well in exploration permit started on 31 October 2020.

BP is using the Diamond Offshore-owned Ocean Apex semi-submersible rig to drill this exploration well. The rig contract was awarded in February 2019.

BP mobilized the rig to the well location in mid-October 2020.

The well, located in water depths of 300 metres, is currently at 407m MDRT and is expected to take approximately 70 to 90 days to drill.

The well will test the giant Ironbark gas prospect, which has a best estimate of 15Tcf prospective recoverable gas resource.

The primary Deep Mungaroo target is at a depth of approximately 5,335 mTVDss. Several additional reservoir objectives within the same formation will also be tested.

An extensive Logging While Drilling (LWD) program has been prepared for the evaluation of the well during drilling.

Ironbark-1 is designed as an exploration well that will be plugged and abandoned following the completion of operations.

Cue CEO, Matthew Boyall, commented: “We are excited to see the start of the Ironbark-1 exploration well, which will target the giant Ironbark gas prospect. Cue’s 21.5% interest is substantial for an opportunity of this size and has the potential to be company changing if successful”.

“Drilling of the Ironbark-1 well is the culmination of significant work undertaken by Cue to explore and understand the Deep Mungaroo gas play in the Carnarvon Basin and attract partners BP, Beach Energy and New Zealand Oil & Gas to form the current joint venture”.

“Success in Ironbark-1 would open up the potential of further Deep Mungaroo prospectivity along this play fairway”.