WA-544-P and NT/P87 (Melbana 100%) These permit areas, containing the undeveloped Turtle and Barnett oil discoveries, were granted to the Company in 2020 under the Australian Government’s 2019 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. They are in shallow water (20 to 40 metres deep) and located about 300 kilometres southwest of Darwin, Australia. The Blacktip gas field lies to the northwest and its pipeline transects the northern boundary of NT/P87, allowing potential access to the Darwin LNG facility and/or the east coast gas market. The permit areas are also adjacent to WA-488-P, which the Company sold in 2021 to a US oil major that is planning a drilling campaign to test the Beehive Prospect therein. Figure 4 – Location of the Hudson Prospect within WA-544-P and NT/P87 During the reporting period the Company continued to study these permit areas, leveraging the experience it gained in studying the adjacent WA-488-P, with the goal of identifying suitable exploration prospects. AC/P70 (Melbana 100%) On 16 February 2022, the Company announced that it had been granted petroleum exploration permit AC/P70, located in the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, for an initial period of six years. Melbana made an application for this permit under the Australian Government’s 2020 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. Since being awarded the permit, the Company has licensed various datasets and undertaken considerable work to better understand what exploration opportunities might exist there. The undeveloped Vesta-1 oil discovery (drilled in 2005) lies within the permit area and an appraisal well drilled in 2007 identified a gas cap. During the reporting period the relevant regulator approved the Company’s application for a 24-month suspension and extension to the permit’s primary term. 15 Melbana Energy Limited Annual Report 2023
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