Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy said Monday it had made a gas discovery at the Artisan-1 exploration well located offshore Victoria Otway Basin in Australia.
The Artisan 1 exploration well was spudded by the Diamond Offshore Ocean Onyx rig on February 23, around 30 kilometers offshore Victoria.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 2,205 meters measured depth (MD) and penetrated the primary Upper Waarre Formation at 1,921 meters MD, approximately 92 meters high to prognosis.
According to Beach Energy, the well intersected a gross gas column of 69.5 meters in the Upper Waarre Formation, including 62.9 meters of net gas pay, with a gas-water contact intersected at 1,990 meters MD.
A gross gas column of 20.9 meters was also intersected in the secondary target of the Flaxman Formation from 1902.8 meters MD, with net gas pay of 4.6 meters. 
Credit: Artisan-1 well discovery map / Credit: Beach Energy
"The well is being cased and suspended as a future producer with an opportunity to tie into the offshore pipeline, currently delivering gas from the offshore Thylacine and Geographe fields to the Otway Gas Plant, at a later date," Beach Energy said Monday.
Beach Energy Managing Director and CEO, Matt Kay, said the result, which follows the success of the Enterprise well in November 2020, provides Beach with further optionality across its Otway Basin portfolio.
“Beginning our Otway campaign with two exploration successes is a good result for Beach,”Kay said. “While the Artisan discovery is at the lower end of pre-drill expectations, it is being cased as a future producer. Drilling operations have gone to plan and I want to commend the teams working on the Ocean Onyx for the successful start to the campaign.”
The rig will move to the Geographe field after the casing operations and start the first of two in-field development wells before moving to the Thylacine field for an additional four in-field wells. First gas from the new Geographe wells is expected to start in FY22, Beach Energy said.
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