Turtle & Barnett
Melbana has a 100% interest in two contiguous permits WA-544-P and NT/P87, covering an area of almost 4,000km2 in the Petrel sub-basin – a shallow water area of the Timor Sea south west of Darwin off the northern coast of Australia.
These two permits, awarded to Melbana in November 2020, contain the undeveloped Turtle and Barnett oil discoveries and are adjacent to Melbana’s recently sold permit WA-488-P**. The initial three-year term will look to leverage learnings from the Beehive project by reprocessing available 2D and 3D seismic data to determine whether the above discoveries can be upgraded and if the potential for deeper carbonate plays exist.
Beehive
WA-488-P contains the giant Beehive prospect with its Prospective Resource of up to 1.4 billion barrels of oil*. The giant Beehive prospect, in a shallow water (about 40 metres) offshore location, is one of the largest undrilled hydrocarbon prospects in Australia. It is a 180km2 isolated carbonate build up of Carboniferous age with 400 metres of mapped vertical relief and a crest at 4,100m. Beehive is analogous to the giant Tengiz field in the Caspian basin which is also a Carboniferous isolated carbonate build-up.
Beehive is located near to ENI’s producing Blacktip gas field and is covered by a high-quality 3D seismic survey acquired in 2018.
In November 2022, Melbana completed the sale of WA-488-P to a subisidary of EOG Resources, Inc. for an upfront consideration of US$7.5 million and further conditional trailing payments. EOG is preparing to drill a well on the Block, subject to it obtaining its requisite approvals. Melbana has no funding commitment to this well.
