(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Acer Energy's (ASX: ACN) strong acreage position in the Cooper Basin with large oil discoveries has proven to be a winning strategy.
The company holds 8 exploration permits covering 2853 square kilometres in the Basin, 6 of which it operates, and is planning to drill up to 6 wells from September 2012.
Five of the permits are located on the GMI ridge, which hold the Flax and Juniper oil discoveries, which could hold more than 100 million barrels of in-place oil, the company also has large gas prospects with 180 billion cubic feet of in-place potential.
These permits also have secondary Birkhead targets that may be tested in new Flax development well locations
The company is also exposed to the basin centred gas accumulation in the Basin espoused by Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) through its PEL 100 and PEL 10 permits that contain the Northern Patchawarra Trough.
Flax and Juniper
While historical Flax wells were chosen based on an enhanced oil recovery development plan, 3D seismic has allowed Acer to identify multiple top of Flax structure well locations for potential future development drilling.
This has also resulted in the mapping of the Flax South structure between the Flax and Juniper structures that besides appearing to be about 65% the size of Flax, appears to have thicker Patchawarra Formation sands.
Juniper also appears to have Patchawarra channel sands that show up on 3D seismic as being potential secondary targets.
To top it off, a further 130 million barrel of in-place potential exists should further work confirm that the Flax and Juniper structures be connected.
Basin centred gas accumulation
Acer's interest in PEL 101 and operating position in PEL 100 gives it a direct exposure to a potentially Basin changing resources.
Beach Energy's unconventional exploration in the Cooper Basin has reinforced the potential for the Patchawarra Trough to host a basin centred gas accumulation, which has traditionally proved to both more productive and less expensive to develop than shale gas plays.
To that extent, Acer is participating in a 250 square kilometre 3D seismic program that will cover most of PEL 100 later this year.
Future plans
Besides the 3-6 well program that Acer plans to start in mid-September, the company will also carry out fracture stimulation across the Tirrawarra / Basal Patchawarra sands in Flax-2 and recomplete Flax-1 across the full 9 metres of the newly proven mid-Patchawarra pay and frac the interval.
Acer will also install artificial lift on Flax-5 before testing the improved well production capability.
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