Key Petroleum Prepares for Dunnart-2 Well Testing Program in Perth Basin

Key Petroleum Ltd. provided Wednesday an operations update on the upcoming testing program in EP437 in the Perth Basin, Western Australia.

Operations Timing

Further to the announcement, dated March 10 Key Petroleum Limited (Key) is pleased to update the market in relation to developments at EP437 in the Perth Basin.

As already disclosed, Key has received a number of responses from the Environment and Petroleum Divisions of the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) but as yet, the Company has not received any responses to its Risk Assessment Register submitted to the Health and Safety Division. The Company is currently planning around an approximate time frame of mid-April to conduct testing operations. Exact timing of the planned operations is subject to final approvals from the DMP.

Key has arranged for third party rig inspections of DCA Rig #6 and anticipates mobilization of the rig to the Dunnart-2 wellsite location in approximately 3 weeks. Over the last two months the Company has been undertaking rehabilitation works at the Dunnart-2 site and setting up oilfield accommodation services in anticipation of mobilizing the rig, rig crew and oilfield services in April. The Company is also closing out a number of responses to the Environment Division of the DMP as a result of an audit inspection conducted late last year at Dunnart-2 and does not expect any significant issues arising from this audit due to the small scale of this operation.

All completion and testing programs have been finalized and the long lead items for this program are in the process of being ordered and delivered to the Company’s operations base in Dongara. An interval of 2,014 feet (614 meters) to 2,053 feet (626 meters) RT is planned to be perforated by tubing conveyed perforating guns to allow flow testing through a 3.5 inch production completion. This interval is over the top and bottom Bookara Sandstone intervals.

Prospectivity Review

As Operator, Key has undertaken some preliminary mapping of EP437 utilizing seismic data acquired over the permit and in the surrounding blocks. Preliminary mapping has indicated that there are at least 10 prospects and leads in this block that have not been drilled. Two additional prospects named Wye Here and Dunnart North have been included in the attached map. Importantly Wye Here lies directly over the pipeline running south.

Importantly the recent gas discovery at Senecio-3 by AWE Limited highlights the prospectivity of the North Perth Basin which remains largely under-explored and under drilled.

A review of the Dunnart structure, Dunnart-1 wellsite evaluations and associated key observations relating to Dunnart-2 have revealed the following:

• Dunnart-2 was drilled structurally up-dip of Dunnart-1 and the Bookara Sandstone interval, good oil shows were encountered at Dunnart-1 however were not sampled by drilling ditch cuttings by the previous Operator
• Reservoir analysis of this particular sandstone indicates the reservoir sandstones to be of excellent reservoir quality with 20 percent porosity and high permeability (a measure of flow characteristics of oil reservoirs)
• It is likely that given the subtle nature of the oil shows, there may be a bypassed oil pay in adjacent wells that the Operator is currently reviewing
• Oil originally form the Dongara field to the south could have been displaced from gas migration into the Dongara and Senecio discovery areas pushing oil into structures to the north, the majority of which are shallow fault bounded structures in EP437; and
• The resistivity profile interpreted from Dunnart-2 logs is symptomatic of a resistivity profile that would explain some invasion of mud filtrate into these sandstones

The technical work is now being fast tracked to mature leads to prospect status as well as conduct some preliminary work on land access and drilling programs around currently mapped prospects in the event of a commercial success at Dunnart-2. As recently announced, Key is looking at a number of rig contractor’s interstate that could be brought in as part of a wider exploration campaign in EP437. The recent downturn in crude oil prices has seen an increase in the availability of oilfield rigs resulting in more competition which in turn has seen oilfield services costs decrease as other Operators around Australia scale back capital exploration plans for 2015. Discussions continue with several prospective farmin partners which would facilitate drilling of a number of prospects as well as potentially any appraisal of future discoveries.

The market will be kept fully informed of any development in this regard.