Beach Hits Oil Pay at Parsons-5

- Beach Hits Oil Pay at Parsons-5

Thursday, June 30, 2011
Beach Energy Ltd.

Beach Energy Ltd. announced Thursday that it has successfully encountered a six-meter oil column at the Parsons-5 development well in the Cooper Basin Western Flank.

Beach had its fifth success in its PEL 92 drilling program with two wells remaining to be drilled. The Parsons-5 well, located 1.3km south of the Parsons-1 discovery well, encountered a six meter oil column.

The Parsons-5 oil column was encountered in the Namur Sandstone reservoir and was consistent with pre-drill expectations. The confirmed updip position with respect to Parsons-2 will result in an upgrade of recoverable oil reserves from the Parsons Field.

Beach will announce a firmer reserve assessment as appropriate data becomes available, but preliminary work suggests that well results from the current drilling program, plus continued strong production performance, will result in an reserve increase in excess of 800,000 barrels for the Parsons Field.

Parsons-5 is expected to be tied in during the second half of the year through the Parsons oil facility. Oil from the Parsons Field is transported from the Western Flank by flowline to Tantanna, from where it is currently trucked to Moomba, and hence not impacted by any flooding in the area.

The next well to be drilled in the PEL 92 program will be the Wheatons-1 exploration well, which is located about 10km to the north of the Parsons Field. Participants in PEL 92 are:

• Beach (Operator) 75%
• Cooper Energy Limited 25%

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Breitling Spuds Big Tex No. 1

- Breitling Spuds Big Tex No. 1

Thursday, June 30, 2011
Breitling Oil & Gas

Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation has spud the Breitling-Big Tex #1 on June 26, 2011 in Gaines County, Texas. The Breitling-Big Tex #1 is the first of three Big Tex prospect wells to be drilled.

The Breitling-Big Tex #1 is a 9,000-foot vertical well within the established Tex-Pac Field and is targeting Lower Clearfork Dolomite beneath 8,500 feet. Secondary objectives include the San Andres, Yates, Glorieta and Abo formations.

Breitling's 3-Well Breitling-Big Tex Prospect was developed after a 75-square-mile 3D seismic shoot was reprocessed and interpreted in 2010. The quality of the new data set after it was re-imaged using Breitling's proprietary Geo3D technology identified features that were not noticeable when the shoot first occurred. In essence the resultant seismic lines were much more detailed and refined, therefore capturing subsurface images not previously acknowledged.

Breitling Oil and Gas expects to recover reserves of 350,000-500,000 BO per well.

Management anticipates the first well will reach total depth in about 29 days. Well completion and testing should begin during the last week of July. Breitling Oil and Gas and its drilling partner Sandridge Energy plan to drill all three wells back-to-back using the same drilling rig.

Breitling Oil and Gas CEO Chris Faulkner stated, "We are excited to be working with Sandridge Energy on the Big Tex wells." Faulkner added, "We have great well control within the Tex-Pac field and great 3D seismic over the prospect."

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Woodside Strikes Over A$1 Billion Deal With Landowners Over Browse

- Woodside Strikes Over A$1 Billion Deal With Landowners Over Browse

Thursday, June 30, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
SYDNEY
by Ross Kelly

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) said Thursday that it has signed an agreement with landowners allowing it to develop the massive Browse gas export project in Western Australia state.

Woodside said the agreement with the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr native title claim group includes initiatives worth over A$1 billion, such as education, training and employment programs, support for indigenous businesses and payments when project milestones are met.

The Browse joint venture also includes Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN), Chevron Corp. (CVX), BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) and BP PLC. (BP.LN).

It's planning to give final approval to the development, estimated by analysts to cost more than $30 billion, by mid-2012.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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BG Doubles Santos Basin Net Potential

- BG Doubles Santos Basin Net Potential

Thursday, June 30, 2011
BG Group

BG Group on Thursday issued a material upgrade for its interests in the pre-salt Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.

Mean Total Reserves and Resources* are now estimated to amount to some 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) net to BG Group, with an upside potential of 8 billion boe net. Existing discoveries account for 96% of the mean Total Reserves and Resources.

The mean Total Reserves and Resources represents a doubling of BG Group's previous best estimate of 3 billion boe prevailing at the time of the Group's February 2010 Strategy Presentation.

The aggregate range of Total Reserves and Resources net to BG Group is from 4 billion boe (P90) to 8 billion boe (P10)**.

These new estimates result from BG Group's internal analysis based on probabilistic modelling of its Santos Basin interests. The analysis used a wealth of drilling, appraisal and other data that BG Group has gained or developed in relation to those interests, including:

• a total of 29 wells drilled in our existing discoveries; two wells drilled on Lula since November 2010 proving particularly important in delineating the flanks of the field. Other wells have demonstrated excellent connectivity in the reservoir;
• a total of 19 drill stem tests on current discoveries;
• the shooting and analysis of over 14,400 square kilometers of 3D seismic;
• full analysis of a completed extended well test (EWT) on Lula Sul and early results from the Guara EWT indicating the very large hydrocarbon volumes connected to each of these wells;
• production from the first permanent floating production, storage and offloading vessel on Lula which commenced in October 2010;
• development plans that include enhanced recovery processes to improve ultimate recovery factors for these giant fields; and
• cost optimization, potential debottlenecking of facilities and greater well productivity enhancing the economic viability of later phases of development.

BG Group Chief Executive Sir Frank Chapman said: "The doubling of our estimated Santos Basin mean reserves and resources is clearly significant and demonstrates the continued rapid evolution of our understanding of these enormous discoveries. Robust economics and solid progress with the fast-track development program will see gross installed production capacity rising steadily to reach more than 2.3 million boe per day by 2017. I believe this - alongside progress with major ventures in Australia, the US and across our global portfolio - will transform the scope, scale and value of BG Group."

* Total Reserves and Resources are defined by BG Group as the aggregate of proved and probable reserves plus discovered resources and risked exploration.

** The Total Reserves and Resources upgrade announced today is based upon probabilistic modelling by BG Group of its interests in the Santos Basin, in accordance with Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) guidelines. The data has been analyzed, interpreted and verified by BG Group and not by the Operator or other Consortium partners.

BG Group has interests in five blocks in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil

• BM-S-9 (30%) containing the Guara, Carioca, Abare and Iguacu discoveries and prospects.
• BM-S- 10 (25%) containing the Parati and Macunaima discoveries and prospects.
• BM-S-11 (25%) containing the Lula, Cernambi and Iara discoveries and prospects.
• BM-S-50 (20%) containing prospects including Sagittario.
• BM-S-52 (40%) containing the Corcovado discovery.

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