From Australia (RW): The controversial Cornea oil and gas field in the Browse Basin, offshore Western Australia, is set for a thorough five-year assessment by a joint venture of local independent companies banding together as Cornea Resources.

The group has been awarded retention license WA-54-R, which covers six graticular blocks encompassing the discovery. The permit term is five years. Cornea Resources chairman, veteran oil and gas entrepreneur and solicitor Geoff Albers, said a program to test the completion design and long-term production behavior of the various reservoirs penetrated by wells in the field is the only way to assess whether they can support a commercial development.

The P50 oil resource estimate is about 410 MMbbls in place, but the recovery factor is thought to be quite low. This, he said, presents a technical challenge to any would-be developer.

Study away
The JV proposes to conduct a series of engineering study programs to address these challenges to production and perceived barriers to commercialization. Subject to the study results, a production test program will be initiated in the fourth permit year.

Cornea hit the headlines when discovered by Shell in the mid-1990s. Shell subsequently made a huge work program bid for surrounding open acreage in the 1996 offshore bidding round including the proposal to drill no less than 42 wells in a $30 million exploration program during the six-year permit term.

After several wells, Shell realized that the initial potential could not be sustained and applied for a variance of its commitments. After a lot of controversy, industry angst and media hostility, the government acquiesced to the request at Cornea, but forced Shell to use its spending commitments in other permits.

Cornea Resources believes a more measured step-by-step approach will answer the question of commercial potential for this dormant discovery.

(From the Editor: This prospect is located inshore from Inpex’s Ichthys giant gas-to-LNG floater development. The contingent gas reserves are about 3 Bcm. The partners involved in this venture include Moby Oil & Gas, Octanex and a number of entities with have “Cornea” as part of their names.)