(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Armour Energy's (ASX: AJQ) Cow Lagoon-1 well has proved the presence of a valid hydrocarbon trap, increasing the prospectivity of the McArthur Basin, Northern Territory.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 1804 metres and discovered gas in the Lynott and Reward Formations.
Gas shows were also seen in the Barney Creek shale oil and gas target, where a prospective 65 metre section was intersected, as well as in deeper formations on the Cow Lagoon West Anticline during underbalanced, air-mist drilling operations.
Armour added that gas influxes and flares were also observed and continued from these formations up to 15 days after they were drilled.
A full suite of logs were acquired and detailed cuttings collected for further mineralogy, maturity, and brittleness studies.
Armour has completed and cased the well to allow for future cased hole testing, lateral drilling and stimulation as required.
It added that lessons learned during drilling of Cow Lagoon-1 will be refined and applied to the Kilgour North 1 that is scheduled to spud at the end of this week.
MacArthur Basin
The McArthur Basin is known to host oil and gas shows and has been assessed by MBA Petroleum Consultants to hold combined mean prospective resource of 18.8 trillion cubic feet of gas and 2 billion barrels of associated liquids within Armour's EP 171 and EP 176.
Commercialisation of any discoveries will be aided by the proximity of the Basin to the Carpentaria Highway as well as the pipeline running along the McArthur River to Darwin.
The prospectivity of the Basin has drawn other companies as well.
Empire Energy Group (ASX: EEG) is currently working with the University of Adelaide's Kennedy Research Group (KRG) to conduct geological studies on Empire's McArthur Basin exploration licence applications.
These studies will focus on identifying the most prospective areas for shale oil and gas drilling, through available data and the generation of critical information, allowing EEG to locate the initial exploration wells.
Empire's wholly-owned subsidiary Imperial Oil & Gas holds a 14.6 million acre (59,000 square kilometre) slice of the McArthur Basin.
While no petroleum exploration has been carried out on the assets, a mineral core hole on an adjacent lease had sustained a 6 metre gas flare for about 6 months, burning an estimated 1 billion cubic feet of gas in this time.
United Orogen (ASX: UOG) also holds 2 licence applications in the Basin while Falcon Oil & Gas (CVE: FO) has successful fracture stimulated and flowed gas from its Shenandoah-1 well in the Beetaloo Basin, which is a separate satellite of the McArthur Basin.
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