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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Old rocks, new tricks: a reinvigorated Cooper Basin offers growth opportunity

Bill Ovenden
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Santos, 60 Flinders Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. Email: bill.ovenden@santos.com

The APPEA Journal 59(2) 928-930 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18248
Accepted: 27 February 2019   Published: 17 June 2019

Abstract

The Cooper Basin spans north-east South Australia and south-west Queensland and is Australia’s largest integrated onshore oil and gas development. Santos and Delhi first discovered commercial gas in 1963. First oil was discovered in 1970. Since then, the Cooper Basin has become a strategically important processing and transportation hub for produced gas and liquids. Continuous investment in new technology, the use of existing infrastructure and, recently, an unrelenting drive to lower drilling and production costs has delivered a low-cost, high-margin producer for east coast domestic and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export markets. This improved operating performance has, in turn, offered Santos the opportunity to reassess ‘our backyard’. The Cooper Basin boasts many growth options, remaining and emerging. Seismic advances are providing improved imaging. Data management, the use of play-based exploration studies, innovative geoscience thinking and renewed investment risk appetite are playing key roles in the development of discovered resources and the exploration of new and emerging plays. Targeted wildcat exploration and appraisal programs, supported by low-cost operations, offer the potential to unlock significant remaining oil and gas resources. The Cooper Basin is poised for another stage of growth. This tangible potential emphasises the critical future role the basin is likely to continue to play as an onshore Australian hydrocarbon supply hub.

Keywords: Cooper Basin, drilling cost, East Coast gas market, expected ultimate recoverable (EUR), fracture stimulation, growth, initial rate (Qi), new plays.

Bill Ovenden joined Santos in 2002 as a staff geologist. He is currently Executive Vice President Exploration and New Ventures for Santos and is accountable for executing a new play exploration strategy across Santos’ assets and capturing new, high-value, organic growth options for the company. Bill has 35 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He has worked on exploration projects in Australia, Central and South-east Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and South America, with Sun Oil, Kufpec, Ampolex and ExxonMobil. Bill joined Santos after working for ExxonMobil in Indonesia. Bill is a member of the APPEA Exploration Committee.