Quadrant Energy will spud the Roc-1 well located in the North West Shelf off Western Australia using the Tom Prosser jackup rig.
The rig will drill a well for Vermillion Energy at the Wandoo oil field in the northwest of Dampier before commencing Roc-1 drilling operations.
The best estimate for the commencement of the Roc-1 well is early to mid November and the well is estimated to take around 50-60 days to complete.
Managed by UK-based Noble Drilling, the newly built rig constructed by Jurong Shipyard in Singapore in 2014 is capable of operating in waters of 400ft and drilling depths of 30,000ft.
According to joint venture partner, Carnarvon Petroleum, Tom Prosser sailed from Singapore on route to Australia and is expected to arrive in Dampier between 19-21 September.
Quadrant is the operator of the WA-437-P permit with 40% stake Partners Finder Exploration, Carnarvon and JX Nippon each have 20% stake.
In June, Quadrant, a Macquarie and Brookfield led consortium completed the acquisition of Apache’s Western Australian business, including WA-437-P for US$2.1 billion.
Since then the group had planned to drill the Roc-1 well in the fourth quarter of 2015. Quadrant and JX Nippon will fund drilling and testing costs within WA-437-P to $70 million. The current estimate to drill the Roc-1 well is around $45 million.
WA-437-P, along with WA-436-P, WA-437-P and WA-438-P permits are situated in the Bedout Sub-basin within the greater Roebuck basin, offshore Western Australia.
The permits also contain the recent Phoenix South-1 oil discovery and the 1980 unrecognized Phoenix-1 oil discovery, according to Finder Exploration.
Situated in 80m of water depth, the Roc-1 well has a shallower reservoir target compared with the Phoenix South-1 well. The Roc prospect is interpreted to contain more recoverable oil than Phoenix South at an estimate of 42 MMbbl.
In Carnarvon’s quarterly report ending 30 June, managing director, Adrian Cook said, “it is anticipated a successful Roc-1 well will be suspended to allow for re-entry within six to twelve months to complete more extensive well sampling.
“Planning is also underway for the drilling of additional appraisal wells in late 2016 to follow the success of Roc-1," he said.