Plug in Jabiru

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 20

Plug in Jabiru

The historic Jabiru No. 1A well in the Timor Sea, off the Northern Territory, has been plugged and suspended after more than a month of successful test flows including a flow of 7500 barrels per day. The flows and pressure have encouraged comparison of the Jabiru block with Bass Strait. Estimates of oil reserves centre around 150200 million barrels but have beeen as high as 300 M. The test flows caused great enthusiasm, in the petroleum exploration industry as the well head pressure and flow rates remained high in spite of the use of larger diameter chokes.

The location of the field accentuates problems of oil recovery as little is known about weather and wave patterns. Jabiru is 300 km from the Australian coastline and 600 km from Darwin, making the North-West Shelf’s “loneliest gas in the world”

appear gregarious. The next planned well in the area is Eclipse No. 1 in March.

When the joint venturers meet next month one of the items on their agenda will be the drilling programme for the permit area, NT/ P 26. Interest holders include the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd, (50 per cent) Citco Australia Petroleum (18.75 per cent), Norcen International, Ltd (12.5 per cent), Weeks Australia, Ltd (10.3125 per cent), Ampil Exploration, Ltd (6.25 per cent), Brenda Mines, Ltd (1.09375 per cent), and Noranda Australia, Ltd (1.09375 per cent).