Explore Victoria
NOTICE OF OPERATION
Lakes Blue Energy NL is preparing for drilling of the Wombat-5 well, in Gippsland, Victoria. Toward securing approval to drill the well, Lakes has initiated a comprehensive Stakeholder engagement program. Individuals or organisations are invited to provide feedback on the proposed drilling program, details of which are set out in a Notice of Drilling Operation issued in August 2024. Submissions may be sent by email to lakes@lakesoil.com.au or by mail to PO Box 300, Collins Street West, Melbourne, 8007.
VICTORIAN PROJECT PORTFOLIO AND PROSPECTIVITY
Lakes Blue Energy has tenure over or involvement in what the Company considers to be the most prospective areas of onshore Victoria (see figure below). Following expiry of a Victorian Government onshore exploration ban, which prevented onshore exploration from 2012 until 2021, and promulgation of a new regulatory regime in November 2021, the Company has been working towards securing approval to recommence exploration drilling activity.
Lakes Blue Energy’s Victorian Exploration Involvements
Petroleum Retention Lease 2 (PRL 2)
Lakes Blue Energy has 100% ownership of PRL 2, which contains the Wombat and Trifon/Gangell Gas Fields. The presence of gas within the Wombat and Trifon / Gangell gas fields is beyond doubt. The fields contain independently certified Contingent Resources of gas, with existing gas wells already capable of gas production. The gas is known to be of good, pipeline quality.
Location of PRL 2 Flaring of Conventional Natural Gas at Wombat-1
The Company intends to drill the Wombat-5 well, a conventional directionally drilled well targeting the upper, more permeable section of the massive gas saturated Strzelecki Formation, as soon approval is secured. Work to secure approval for drilling of the well is well underway, including preparation of an Environmental Management Plan and updating of Cultural Heritage work. Lakes owns the land upon which the well will be drilled.
Based upon independent modelling Lakes Blue Energy is optimistic that the Wombat-5 well will flow gas at an initial rate of around 10 TJ/d, rendering both the well and the wombat Gas Field commercial.
Given the onshore location of the Wombat Gas Field, close to existing gas pipeline infrastructure, it is expected that the field could be brought online quickly (circa 18 months) and at low cost. With a gas production potential of around 20 PJ/a, development of the Wombat Gas Field could provide quick relief for both the ongoing, and likely worsening, Victorian gas supply shortfall and the high gas prices that have resulted from it.
In the longer term, as gas production from the Wombat field declines, the Trifon / Gangell field will be brought online.
Design of Conventional Wombat-5 Lateral Gas Well
Petroleum Exploration Permits 167 & 175 (PEP 167 & PEP 175)
‘The Portland Energy Project’
Lakes Blue Energy has a 100% interest in PEP175 & PEP175, which were acquired in September 2014 and form the basis of the company’s ‘Portland Energy Project’. The Portland Energy Project is based upon a Focus Area in the southwestern corner of PEP175, to north of Port Fairy, selected for investigation on the basis of historic seismic and drilling data, and in recognition of the potential for production of gas by conventional means. There has been considerable historic drilling activity in and around the Focus Area, all of which has confirmed beyond doubt the presence of natural gas within the thick Eumeralla Formation. While gas was demonstrated to exist, the potential for its production was not historically tested since the search, at that time, was for oil, there was no market available for gas and no gas pipeline infrastructure was present. These circumstances have of course now all changed. Pipeline infrastructure is available and the Victorian gas market (indeed the eastern Australian gas market) is desperate for increased supplies of gas to curtail prohibitive gas price increases.
With independent expert assistance, the company has identified preferred locations for drilling of two proof-of-concept wells, Greenslopes-2 and Portland Energy-1. Both wells are to be conventional wells, drilled to a depth of around 1,500 metres with the
specific purpose of demonstrating that gas can be produced by conventional means from the Eumeralla Formation.
Lakes Blue Energy has commissioned independent assessmetns that confirm the gas-in-place potential of the Eumeralla Formation. As set out in Table 1, the estimated (50% probability) gas resource of the Focus Area is 11.5 trillion cubic feet, of which the Company considers around 3 trillion cubic feet should be recoverable by conventional means. The Portland Energy Project has the potential to fundamentally change the landscape of gas supply into the eastern Australian gas market.
Enterprise North
The Enterprise North prospect is located onshore in PEP 169, near the Otway and Athena gas processing facilities and the lona gas storage facility and is “on-trend” with the Enterprise (Beach Energy Ltd) and Minerva (Cooper Energy Limited) gas fields. The Prospect covers as area of up to 1,170 acres and is prognosed to contain 32.9 PJ of recoverable gas at 50% probability level.
Portland Energy Project - Focus Area
Petroleum Exploration Permit 169 (PEP 169)
Lakes Blue Energy has a 49% interest in PEP 169 that is in the process of being transferred to Armour Energy (Victoria) Pty Ltd for consideration of $6.5 million (the first $3.0m of which has been received) plus an ongoing 6% royalty over Armour’s preexisting 51% interest. There is also an existing 2% royalty share receivable by Lakes over the 49% interest that is being transferred.
Proceeds from the sale of Lakes’ interest in PEP169 will be used to expedite pursuit of Lakes’ wholly owned Wombat Project (detailed above), where contingent resources of gas have already been independently certified.
There are several exploration objectives within PEP 169 that will be pursued by Armour, at no ongoing cost to Lakes but with Lakes benefitting from any exploration/development success through royalties receivable. Two prospects of interest are described below.
Location of Enterprise North Prospect
Otway-1
The Otway-1 prospect is located adjacent to, but on the opposite side of a fault from, the existing lona gas field. Exploration of the prospect would involve drilling of a conventional, vertical well to a depth of approximately 1,500 metres, targetting gas in both the Waarre Sands and the Eumeralla Formation, and oil in the Pebble Point Sandstone. The Waarre Sands are the basis of historic gas production from the lona gas field and, at the Otway-1 location, are uplifted relative to lona.
Lakes will be paid a royalty on any revenue from any petroleum produced from within PEP 169.
Otway-1 Location