The Cooper/Eromanga Basins are the premier onshore oil and gas producing basins in Australia. The Cooper Basin is a Permo-Carboniferous to Triassic basin with sediment up to 2,500 metres thick which consists of interbedded sandstones, shales and coals. The overlying Eromanga Basin is Early Jurassic to Late Cretaceous in age and has sediment up to 3,000 metres thick which consist of sandstones, siltstones and shales. Over 2,500 exploration and development wells have been drilled in the Cooper/Eromanga Basins to date with estimated cumulative production of over 6.2 Tcf of gas, 315 MMbbl of oil and 92 MMboe of condensate.
The Cooper/Eromanga Basins are connected to the Adelaide and east coast markets via gas pipelines, with oil and liquids pipelines connecting the region to Port Bonython in South Australia and Moonie/Brisbane in Queensland.
Vali is a producing gas field located in ATP 2021 with independently certified Proved and Probable resources of 101 PJ (Vintage share 50.5 PJ).
Vali is Vintage Energy’s first new field discovery and first revenue generating asset.
Discovered in 2020, Vali commenced production in February 2023, supplying AGL under a gas supply agreement with AGL that extends to December 2026. Under the contract, Vali will supply between 9 and 16 PJ to AGL over the contract period, leaving the large majority of the field’s reserves uncontracted.
Operations at Vali in the near term, will be directed to an “Appraisal via Production “ process to build an through understanding of the field and inform the preparation of a full field development plan for optimise field performance and returns from Vali.
The field has three completed wells and considered to possess potential for value adding appraisal drilling. Gas from Vali undergoes initial separation and metering through facilities recently installed and commissioned at the field from where it is transported to join the Moomba gas gathering network at Beckler. Processing is undertaken at the Moomba facility prior to sale.
ATP 2021 is considered to hold potential for additional gas and oil discoveries. Vintage Energy is planning 3D seismic acquisition to address this potential.
The Odin gas field was discovered by Vintage in May 2021 and has independently certified 2C gas resources of 40 PJ (Vintage share 19.7 PJ).
Strong gas buyer interest in the resource encouraged the joint venture to pursue accelerated connection of the field.
An interim accelerated connection project is underway to link Odin-1 to the Vali-Beckler pipeline for first supply from the third quarter of calendar 2023.
A permanent long term connection to the Val processing facilities and further appraisal of the field are currently being planned.
Appraisal drilling on the field is being considered by the joint venture.
Vintage was successful in bidding for Block CO2019-E (“PELA 679”) in the south west of the Cooper Basin in South Australia. PELA 679 forms one of five hydrocarbon exploration licence blocks released for competitive bidding by the South Australian Department of Energy and Mining in 2019. Once an appropriate land access agreement is in place with the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and the State Government, Vintage will have a 100% interest in the permit, which will provide options relating to the financing of the firm work program through the potential introduction of a joint venture partner/s.
PELA 679 has both Permian and Jurassic oil potential, with cumulative oil production of 4.5 MMbbl from two nearby fields, one being the Worrior Field immediately to the north east. The permit covers a total area of 393 km2 and has primarily been targeted for oil exploration. Seismic data is limited with the majority being poor quality 2D.
The first exploration well in the region was Pando-1 which was drilled in 1966 and tested for oil and gas within a large four-way closure. Despite suppressed Jurassic oil shows, the well was plugged and abandoned, with Stuart Petroleum Ltd drilling the Worrior-1 wildcat 37 years later, 750 metres to the south east of Pando-1. 50 km2 of 3D seismic and ten development wells have resulted in production in excess of 4 MMbbl of oil to date from the Worrior oil field (Senex Energy 70%, Cooper Energy 30%), primarily from the McKinlay Member, Birkhead Formation and Hutton Sandstone.
The committed work program for the permit over the initial five year licence term includes geological and geophysical studies comprising maturity studies, petrophysics and a rock physics trending study, acquisition of 100 km2 of 3D seismic and drilling of two wells.
Vintage has identified three Jurassic four-way closures and one Permian Patchawarra Formation stratigraphic play from the sparse 2D seismic it has mapped to date. The “morphology” of Basement-influenced Jurassic structures located up-dip and along trend of Permian stratigraphic hydrocarbons, is analogous to Beach Energy Ltd’s prolific Western Flank play, where the Pennington Oil Field and ultimately the Bauer Field are up-dip of Permian stratigraphically trapped gas of the Udacha and Middleton Fields.
