Significant new offshore oil discovery west of Onslow announced (A/Min)

14/1/00
Acting Mines Minister Dr Kim Hames today announced a significant new offshore oil discovery 27km west of Onslow.
"The great benefit of the WAPET discovery is that it is only five kilometres from the company's production and processing unit at Thevenard Island," Dr Hames said.
"This means that the project could tie in with existing infrastructure and production."
Dr Hames said that the recent discovery was just one of the many successes expected in the region and an indication of Western Australia's sustained prospectivity.
"Although this discovery is relatively small, it is nonetheless very significant as further drilling of nearby areas may result in more discoveries leading to a large oil resource base necessary for a stand-alone development," he said.
Dr Hames also expressed the importance of the find for WA.
"Significantly, the discovery is in WA territorial waters, signifying a new source of royalty revenue to the State Government," he said.
The discovery was made with the drilling of the Coaster 1 well to a depth of 1112m in the Carnarvon Basin. Logging and sampling was carried out on Coaster 1 in late December 1999.
Dr Hames said that there were 11 oil and gas discoveries in the State last year.
Media contacts:
Hartley Joynt, Minister's office, 9321 1444 or -
Cathrina Read, Department of Minerals and Energy, 9222 3572