B.H.P. Says Report Misconstrued

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32234, 28 February 1970, Page 14

B.H.P. Says Report Misconstrued

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

MELBOURNE, February 27.

Reports that the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd, had struck an “oil bonanza” in its oil and natural gas field in Bass Strait off the Victorian coast were completely irresponsible, a spokesman for the company said yesterday.

The report, carried in a Sydney evening newspaper yesterday and later by London newspapers, had put a completely wrong emphasis on the company’s interim report released in Melbourne on Wednesday. The spokesman said: In fact B.H.P. had announced no new field or commercial oil discovery. There had not been a well drilled on the company's Snapper field in Bass Strait for six months or more. “Talk of a new oil strike is completely irresponsible and completely without foundation," the spokesman said. In the company’s last annual report it had been disclosed that the Snapper field was commercial, should markets be found for the gas in it. The evaluation had placed an estimate on the Snapper reserve of 3 million cubic feet. This meant that the company’s estimate of its total reserves of Bass Strait gas have now gone up from 5.6 to 8.6 million million cubic feet. The estimate was released for the first time in Wednesday’s report. This report also restated earlier disclosed information that by the middle of next year production from the company’s Ml production wells—Halibut, Kingfish and Barracouta—would be be-

tween 280,000 and 300,000 barrels a day. “This is certainly not new,” the spokesman said. “These estimates were made public a year ago.” Although there were no new figures on the Snapper field, B.H.P. this week announced hydrocarbons in its Tuna No. 3 well. Their presence had been shown in core recoveries after drilling, by Glomar HI for the Esso-B.H.P. partnership. This confirmed an eastward extension of the upper zone previously encountered ,in Tuna No. 1. The well had reached 5023 feet. The show’s significance must await further evaluation, the company said, and preparations were under way to run casing at the present depth and then to resume drilling. There had been no indications of hydrocarbons yet in the Chama No. 1A well,where Ocean Digger was drilling ahead at 9000 feet in a sandstone and siltstone sequence. The well was being logged.