Triangle Energy Global has wrapped up the acquisition of two highly-prospective oil and gas permits in WA’s Perth Basin, handing over 31.3 million shares to ASX-listed Key Petroleum to seal the deal.
The company previously held a major stake in both assets and mopped up the balance in exchange for $600,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares to be issued by June 30.
The deal also sees the company buy back a five per cent production royalty from Key Petroleum and says it makes the permits more valuable.
Perth-based Triangle already held a 50 per cent stake in the L7 permit, an onshore exploration acerage south of Geraldton in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The tenure blankets the Allanooka Terrace in the North Perth Basin, sharing many attributes with the Dandaragan Trough – a major gas-producing area of the Perth Basin.
Within the L7 permit, the Mount Horner Field historically produced more than 1.7 million barrels of oil until it was closed off in 2011 due to high water content and aging infrastructure.
Key Petroleum says a significant chunk of Mount Horner’s oil was produced from Jurassic period stratigraphies, leaving the zone’s north-lying prospective Permian and Triassic layers largely untapped.
The second of Triangle’s recently secured permits, EP 437, is an onshore basin located on the rim of the North Perth Basin and adjacent to the Dongara oil and gas field south of Geraldton.
Key Petroluem claims gas was encountered in the permit through the historic Wye-1 discovery well. The explorer says the output is comparable to material from the Dongara field.
Triangle believes the two permits collectively hold 617 billion cubic feet of gas and 19 million barrels of oil.
Since inking its new deal with Key Petroleum, Triangle has farmed out 50 per cent of its L7 production license and EP 437 exploration permit, with New Zealand Oil & Gas and Talon Energy each snapping up a 25 per cent stake. The trades tipped more than $19 million into Triangle’s coffers.
The company says proceeds from the farmout deals with its partners covered the costs of acquiring and processing its Bookara 3D seismic data and will also help fund the vast majority of planned exploration across its licences.
Triangle recently announced a clutch of compelling oil and gas targets highlighted from the ongoing interpretation of the Bookara data set. The promising revelations have prompted it to schedule a drilling campaign for three of the targets in the first half of next year.
The North Perth Basin is garnering increased attention through several major headline discoveries and is considered to be Australia’s biggest onshore conventional gas field.
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By Helen Barling
