Perth, Aug 6, 2008 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Beach Petroleum Limited (ASX:BPT) today announced a 282% increase in its proved and probable coal seam gas reserves within the energy group's Surat Basin tenements in central Queensland.
An independently certified report has upgraded Beach's proven and probable (2P) coal seam gas reserves in the Surat Basin to 443 petajoules (PJ) from 116 PJ certified just seven months ago.
The independent consultants have also lifted the Company's proven (1P) Surat reserve entitlements by 45% to 94 PJ from a previous reserve certification of 65 PJ at the end of December 2007.
The upgrades follow ongoing development drilling, continued strong production trends and new reserves from deeper coal seam measures within the Surat interests.
Beach has a 40% interest in various tenements in the Surat Basin, 25 kilometres southwest of Dalby in Queensland, with Operator, Arrow Energy Ltd (ASX:"AOE") holding the remaining 60% interest. The tenements include the Tipton West block from which the Tipton West Field is already producing, the Dalby South block and the Millmerran block.
The extensive acreage contains total proved, probable and possible (3P) reserves of 2078 PJ or approximately 2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.
The reserves report was prepared for Arrow by independent consultancy, Netherland, Sewell and Associates, Inc. Expressed in millions of barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), the increase in Beach's Surat reserves is summarised below, using a conversion factor of 5.82 PJ/mmboe.
------------------------------------------------- Beach net reserves in PJ (MMBoe) 1P 2P 3P-------------------------------------------------June 2007 10 (2) 69 (12) 906 (156)December 2007 65 (11) 116 (20) 925 (159)June 2008 * 94 (16) 443 (76) 831 (143)-------------------------------------------------(* Adjusted for approximately 8 PJ of gas produced to date).
The latest Surat increase, flagged by Beach in June, takes the Company's total oil and gas reserves at 30 June 2008 to approximately 148 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe).
"This substantial CSG reserves upgrade underpins Beach's confidence in the value of the Tipton Field and associated reserves in the Surat Basin region," Beach Petroleum's Managing Director, Mr Reg Nelson, said today
"The upgrade also provides further evidence of the major position held in Queensland and Australian energy-supply markets by the nation's burgeoning coal seam gas industry," Mr Nelson said.
"We have always believed that Beach will accrue significant value from the growth of this sector and have secured a demonstrable position in Queensland's CSG sector that is close to trunk pipelines and solid demand from industrial users."
The Tipton West field is currently producing gas at the rate of 24 million cubic feet a day (mmscfd) with the best performing well producing at around 1.2 mmscfd.
The Beach-Arrow joint venture's field production and gas sales to the new 450 megawatt Braemar Power Station, 45 kilometres to the northwest of the field, continue to ramp up under a contract to provide 136 PJ over 15 years to the station.
The bulk of Tipton West production until recently has been from the shallower Juandah coal measures, but Mr Nelson says results from the deeper Taroom measures continue to impress with flow rates averaging 350 mmscfd per well.
Mr Nelson said certification of the deeper Taroom reserves was of particular value as development of the Taroom would require significantly reduced investment through sharing of infrastructure with existing Juandah seams wells.
Contact
Reg Nelson
Beach Petroleum
08 8338 2833
Mark Lindh
Adelaide Equity
0414 551 361
Ian Howarth
Farrington National
03 9223 2455
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