Santos to Focus on Western Australia

Santos Ltd will be turning its focus back to the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia in 2002. Santos is going to drill the Norfolk and Exeta wells in WA-191-P, where the Mutineer oil discovery was made in 1998.

Mutineer is north of the 40,000 b/d Woodside-operated Legendre field, in WA-1-P. Drilling of the Ajax well in WA-1-P is also targeted for early this year.

Santos will also be following up last year's successful Corowa discovery, approximately 40 kilometers from the Thevenard Island production facility and 24 km south of the Griffin field, and will also drill at the East Spar gas and condensate field.

The Carnarvon Basin program follows disappointing results from a two-well drilling program in the offshore Browse Basin north of Broome. The Maribou-1 well had found only some hydrocarbon shows. That well was part of a two-well drilling program in the basin. The first, Carbine-1, came up dry.