The Beetaloo Basin in Northern Territory, Australia,
could be the next sweet spot for unconventional
and conventional hydrocarbon production.
The basin’s attributes: It’s a multimillion-acre site in a
politically and economically stable country, with existing
pipeline access, currently estimated recoverable resources
of 19 billion barrels of oil and 64 trillion cubic feet of gas
at depths between 5,000 and 8,500 feet, and energy-hungry
neighbors.
Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. of Denver, the sole operator of
more than 7 million acres under license in the remote
basin, is in the process of proving that the Kyalla and
Velkerri shales are Southern Hemisphere rivals to Marcellus,
Haynesville and Barnett shales. The high total-organic-
content shales, Kyalla (at about 5,000 feet) and
Velkerri (at about 8,500 feet), are typically 2,600 feet
thick across the basin. The shales are separated by a possible
conventional formation, the Moroak sandstone, which
is more than 1,000 feet thick and has conventional porosity
and low-permeability intervals.
Testing will begin in 2010, after the rainy season, in a
previously drilled exploration well, #1 Shenandoah. Falcon
geologists are analyzing core samples from mining
operations that used to dominate the resource-rich Australian
state.
Australia’s energy-hungry neighbors include China,
India, Japan and South Korea.
—Larry Prado

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