Tap Oil Adds Two Exploration Blocks Offshore Western Australia

Tap Oil Limited reported Monday that it has been awarded 100 percent of Blocks W14-7 and W14-16 in the prospective Barrow and Dampier sub-basins on the Australian North West Shelf offered under the 2014 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release.

W14-07, now Petroleum Exploration Permit WA-515-P, is located on the Rankin Platform in water depths ranging from less than 328 feet (100 meters) to 1,312 feet (400 meters) and covers an area of approximately 187 square miles or 485 square kilometers (6 graticular blocks). The permit lies between the Wheatstone gas field to the west and the Goodwyn/Perseus gas fields to the east.

W14-16, now Petroleum Exploration Permit WA-516-P, is located to the east of the Alpha Arch on the western flank of the Barrow sub-basin and is adjacent to other Tap held acreage. The permit is in water depths of between 164 feet (50 meters) to 656 feet (200 meters) and covers an area of approximately 61.7 square miles or 160 square kilometers (2 graticular blocks). The permit lies between the Griffin, Chinook/Scindian fields and the Woollybutt Oil Field.

Tap has agreed to a three year work program comprising of reprocessing open file 3D seismic or licensing existing multi-client reprocessed 3D data, Quantitative Interpretation studies and G&G studies (at an indicated estimated expenditure of approximately $0.61 million or AUD 0.8 million per permit). Each three year work program runs from March 6 through to March 5, 2018. The majority of these funds are anticipated being spent from 2016 onwards.

The optional secondary work program comprises 3D seismic acquisition in Year 4 and a well in Year 6.