Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. reported Sept. 14 that drilling operations on the Beetaloo W-1 well in Australia were completed.

The vertical exploration well was drilled to 3,173 m total depth. Preliminary evaluation revealed the continuation of the regionally pervasive Middle Velkerri Formation about 85 kilometers (km) south of the Kalala S-1 and Amungee NW-1H wells.

There was a gross interval of more than 570 m of shale gas sequence with net pay exceeding 150 m.

The Middle Velkerri Shale falls in a highly prospective gas mature depth window, and there were gas shows at two prospective shale sweet spots at the top and base of the shale. Falcon Oil said that these are comparable to sweet spots encountered during the 2015 drilling program.

The Lower Kyalla Formation, considered a secondary shale target, provided gas shows within a 150 m-thick liquid-rich sequence, the company said.

Conventional coring in the Lower Kyalla and sidewall cores and extensive wireline logging in the Middle Velkerri will enable a full-scale evaluation of prospectivity in the southern part of the Beetaloo Basin.

As planned, the well was cased and suspended. The company also said that Rig 185 was released and demobilized.

The company also said that the hydraulic stimulation of the horizontal Amungee NW-1H well was also completed.

Falcon also commented on the statement made by Chief Minister Michael Gunner, of the newly elected government, relating to Sept. 14’s introduction of a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Philip O'Quigley, CEO of Falcon, said that the company will provide further information on the moratorium as it becomes available.

According to Gunner, the moratorium applies to the fracking of onshore unconventional reservoirs in the territory. The moratorium will be in place until the government thoroughly considers the recommendations of an independent scientific inquiry, Gunner said.