Drilling of the Dorado-1 well in the Canning Basin offshore Western Australia has now commenced, with preparations to drill a 17-inch section of the hole. In the project, 125 million barrels of oil equivalent are being targeted.

Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (Carnarvon), is a Western Australian-based company focusing on oil and gas exploration and production, with projects in Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. Since arriving on the Dorado site, Carnarvon has successfully drilled a 36-inch conductor hole, running and cementing the 30-inch surface casing, and has preparations to drill the 17-inch section. The primary objective of the project is to assess the gas and liquids potential in the Caley Member with the well located less than 20km from the successful Roc-1 and Roc-2 wells. The Dorado structure at the Caley interval is predicted to contain a gross mean recoverable prospective resource of 545 Bscf of gas and produce roughly 30 million barrels of associated condensate.

“We’re more than an oil and gas exploration company – we’re pioneers in thought innovation,” Carnavron has said in a statement on their website.

“Through creative partnerships and bold investment in the latest data and technology, our talented team is making discoveries many thought not possible.”

Multiple secondary targets have been identified by Carnarvon in the Crispin and Milne Members and these will also be assessed by the Dorado-1 exploration well. Prospective Resources may potentially be recovered by the application of a future development project and may relate to undiscovered accumulations. These prospective resource estimates have an associated risk of discovery and risk of development.

Further exploration and appraisal (including this well) are required to determine the existence of a significant quantity of potentially moveable hydrocarbons.