Canning Basin Exploration

Petroleum exploration activity began in the Canning Basin in the early 1920s and nearly 250 onshore wells have been drilled since that time.

Up until the mid-1980s, exploration largely focused on the norther and central basin areas, with primary exploration targets being the Devonian and Permo-Carboniferous sequences principally in the Blina area. Exploration then languished following the low oil price in the 1980s and the collapse of the Australian share market in 1987.

Although many of the regional exploration wells had shows, especially of oil, the Basin remains substantially under-explored with few valid structural tests.

ARC’s major exploration program in the Canning Basin commenced in August 2007 and is underpinned by a recent gas sales agreement with Alcoa, and the program will drill 20 wells over three years.

The program’s potential for quick commercialisation is also supported by ARC’s Mobile Early Production System technology for rapid oil production for trucking to the BP Kwinana refinery up to 4,000 bopd.