Beach sets 3 MMbbl target 2006-2007
Offshore staff
(Asia-Pacific) - Australian junior explorer Beach Petroleum Ltd. has targeted 3 MMbbl of oil within 18 months by intensifying E&P operations across Australia.
Beach Chairman Robert Kennedy told shareholders at the Adelaide annual general meeting on November 17 that the 2006-2007 financial year target would be fuelled by the company's expanding entitlements from the new production fields offshore Gippsland, and its current core E&P interests in the Cooper Eromanga basin.
Beach has raised production to 1.05 MMboe in the 12 months to June 30 this year from 967,000 MMboe in 2004, 907,000 MMboe in 2003 and 388,600 MMboe in 2002.
The target would not include gas production from Beach's acquisition of a 40% interest in the Tipton West coal seam gas project in Queensland's Surat basin and any upside from on new discoveries through ongoing exploration in the Cooper, Otway, Browse, Gippsland and Carnarvon basins.
Kennedy says the opening quarter for the 2005-2006 financial year had generated sales revenues of $21.5 million -- nearly 3 times that of the previous corresponding quarter and nearly equal to the 2004-2005 first half year revenue of $22.3 million.
Beach found more oil during the year than it produced -- driven by new exploration discoveries. Beach had drilled 51 wells in the past five years with a 43% commercial success rate.
The current net oil reserves stood at 13.5 MMbbl at the end of the September 2005 quarter, compared to under 1 MMbbl four years ago.
The gas condensate resources in the Basker Manta Gammy field, southeast of Victoria's Lakes Entrance and which began producing this week, could be developed as early as 2008, Kennedy says.
The New Zealand's offshore Canterbury basin also offered a strong new exploration project in waters east of the country's South Island.
11/17/05