In the late 1970's many professionals in the oil and gas industry began entertaining the idea that onshore Tasmania had the potential to be home to a large petroleum bearing basin. There were many reasons for this "awakening" but chief among them were that gas had been discovered in Bass Strait off the Tasmanian coast, oil seeps were eventually discovered on shore, and the local geology was found to be quite similar to producing oil fields in other parts of the world. When they put all the pieces of the puzzle together, it became readily apparent that this premise of onshore hydrocarbons in Tasmania was well worth pursuing.
A Special Exploration License (SEL 13/98) has been issued to Empire's wholly owned subsidiary Great Southland Minerals, an unlisted public Australian company. The lease covers 15,000 square kilometers (6000 square miles; 3,800,000 acres) of the most prospective section of the Tasmanian Basin, one of the last virgin oil plays in the developed world.
Great South Land Minerals (GSLM) was founded in 1995 to investigate these concepts. The principals understood that what was needed was empirical evidence to substantiate this thesis and they were fully cognizant of the efforts that would have to be expended in order to achieve success. Commitments were made, the company structure was consummated, and operations began.
Ten years later in 2005, GSLM became part of a newly formed US company called Empire Energy which in turn became the trading vehicle for the entire operation. The symbol was assigned as EEGC.OTCBB, and a listing on the US over the Counter Bulletin Board was established.
Soon thereafter, the company was encouraged in its search for hydrocarbons when an oil seep in Southern Tasmania was authenticated by Australian scientists working with the state and federal governments. The oil was determined to be a low sulfur, heavy crude, that had "migrated" (traveled upwards and/or laterally) after being sourced at depth from Tasmanite Oil Shale. In the early 20th century, the same type of Tasmanite Oil Shale had produced 444,000 gallons of oil in northern Tasmania by surface quarrying and distillation methods
The Tasmanite and several other viable source rocks were studied and analyzed. Ultimately their presence at depth in the basin was established. Extensive magnetic and gravity surveys were conducted and six stratigraphic wells, including one on Bruny Island that was a mile deep were drilled. That particular effort revealed sub-economic amounts of thermogenic hydrocarbon gases including butane, pentane, octane and nonane. However, significant amounts of the very valuable gas helium were also discovered.
Further evidence of oil generation from these drill holes was discovered as oil inclusions in sandstones and in outcropping rocks were found across the state.
In 2001, The Australian federal government through its Research Grants Scheme, awarded the University of Tasmania $250,000 (with matching amounts from GSLM) in order to study the petroleum systems of onshore Tasmania. This study confirmed the prospectively of the Tasmania Basin.
Two petroleum systems were identified: a more recent Permian-Triassic, Gondwanan Petroleum System and an older (Ordovician to Devonian) Larapintine Petroleum System. It was demonstrated that there are close similarities between the Tasmania Basin Gondwana Petroleum System and the producing Cooper Basin in central Australia. Additional similarities were found between the Larapintine Petroleum System on the island and the Tarim Basin in northwest China.
Studies addressing the potential of the source rock along with monte-carlo simulations of the potential reservoir capacity concluded that an undiscovered resource with the potential of between 1 billion and 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent could be recoverable from onshore Tasmania.
Subsequently, $10 million was expended on seismic surveys which revealed an abundance of potential structural traps; of which several are of significant size. Two of these structures are now the focus of the drilling at Bellevue #1 and Thunderbolt #1.
In early 2008 environmental studies of considerable size and scope were undertaken and were concentrated on promising drill sites. Subsequently, permission was obtained from the regulatory authorities of the Tasmanian government to drill at Bellevue #1 and Thunderbolt #1.
In 2008, the Hunt Energy #3 rig (see video on Empires web site) was contracted to move from the mainland of Australia to northern Tasmania. After extensive site preparation, the Bellevue#1 top hole was drilled to 272metres by a local percussion mineral rig and the Hunt Rig was moved on site in December 2008. The remainder of the equipment needed for drilling was purchased in January 2009.
Bellevue#1 and Thunderbolt#1 are the first two wells planned in a multi-well drilling program that will test the commerciality of the Tasmania Basin. Bellevue#1 is planned to drill to 2600m (8530 feet) and to intersect and test 6 potential target zones in the two petroleum systems. This includes 3 levels of coal which will be tested for gas.
GSLM retains the rights to all conventional petroleum discovered within its Special Exploration License area which at 15,035 square kilometres (5,805 square miles or 3.7 million acres) is one of the largest exploration tenements in the Australian region. The Tasmanian state government will charge a 12% royalty on the well head value of any oil and gas produced for commercial purposes.
Any natural gas discovered may be used domestically in Tasmania and will potentially provide energy self-sufficiency for Tasmania.
In March of 2009, Empire Energy finds itself on the cusp of drilling its first well. It has been a long and arduous journey, not unlike most of them that are experienced when companies find themselves drilling in virgin basins. We look forward with our own positive energy and a united front with the ultimate goal of total success. Stay tuned to this story which has had all the elements of a detective mystery combined with the iron will of people dedicated to creating a positive outcome.
Dr. Clive Burrett
Chief Geologist
Great South Land Minerals Limited |
