An announcement was made earlier this morning that a significant oil discovery was made by Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (Carnarvon) and their partner Quadrant Northwest Pty Ltd, in the Caley Member, as a part of the current Dorado-1 well drilling campaign.

The Dorado-1 well drilling project is located within the WA-437-P exploration permit, just offshore of Western Australia. Light oil was recovered by the company from a reservoir that contains a net pay thickness of 79.6 metres in highly porous and permeable sands. As wireline testing commenced at the Dorado-1 well, the results were confirmed.

“This is a significant discovery given the quantum of the net pay thickness, the quality of the oil and the extremely good reservoir characteristics,” announced the company’s Managing Director, Adrian Cook.

According to the company, the current estimate for the net oil pay is around 80 metres, however, more drilling is still required. The next stage for the project is to assess and issue a revised volume estimate as soon as drilling operations have finalised. It was also announced that the ‘high quality’ of the reservoir was further reinforced by the rapid time taken to extract the oil samples and the ‘high mobility’ that was recorded while undertaking formation testing in the well.

“With multiple targets still left, the focus for Carnarvon now is to complete the drilling program through the Baxter, Crespin and Milne Members,” Cook explained.

The Milne Sandstone is a secondary target which may contain up to four additional sands of a similar size for the company, although there are predictions that it will have a slightly higher risk.

More information on this project can be accessed here.