Fracked gas flowing in Beetaloo Basin

THE recently fracked Amungee well in the Beetaloo Basin is flowing more than one million cubic feet of natural gas per day

The Amungee well in the Beetaloo Basin is flowing more than one million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

THE recently fracked Amungee well in the Beetaloo Basin is flowing more than one million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Origin Energy won approval to frack on the eve of the August 27 election, beating the newly-elected Gunner Government’s moratorium on the practice ahead of its inquiry into the process.

Origin’s partner in the Beetaloo Basin, Falcon Oil and Gas, announced the results. The Beetaloo is situated about 500km southeast of Darwin,

Falcon Oil and Gas chief executive Philip O’Quigley said initial results were positive.

“Preliminary results of the first horizontal exploration well in the Beetaloo are very encouraging,” he said. “The planned testing program using a production tubing string aims to evaluate the potential gas flow rate of the well.”

Falcon confirmed that an eleven stage hydraulic stimulation program was successfully completed along a 1,000 metre horizontal well section in the Middle Velkerri B shale zone.

It said that the flow-back of fracture stimulation fluid continues to return to surface. A workover rig is now being mobilised so that production tubing can be installed to enable an extended production test.

Falcon told investors that early gas flow rates regularly exceeded rates of one million cubic feet per day, and were consistently between 400,000 and 600,000 cubic feet per day.

The Blacktip field at Bonaparte Basin produces about 60,000 million cubic feet of gas a day to supply all the Territory’s power needs.

The new NT Labor Government introduced a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.

The ban includes fracking for exploration or extraction, and any future fracking will be determined by an independent scientific inquiry. Origin started the government approvals process in May. The final authorisation was received on the 23rd of August, before the election.

Origin’s general manager of exploration and new resources, Ross Evans, said well testing was permitted to continue until late November, however it was likely to be completed earlier.