Unlocking the Canning Basin: Gas Resources for Western Australia

The Canning Basin, located on and inland of the northern coast of Western Australia, is one of Australia's largest basins at over 400,000 km2. Within the northern portion of the Basin, Black Mountain Energy (BME) is focused on sustainable development of its ~3,600 km2 Valhalla Project permit area (Figure 1). Few wells have been drilled on the Lennard Shelf and basin margins bounding the deep Fitzroy Trough depocenter, but a number have encountered significant gas shows and have tested conventional and unconventional resources. The BME tight gas acreage has 1.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of contingent gas resources and 11.8 TCF of prospective gas resources. These resources are contained within the prograding Laurel marine siliciclastics and carbonates that were deposited in a transitional ramp setting. Multiple tectonic phases have altered this basin, creating an extensive set of both transpressional and extensional fault systems. Ahead of the planned 2023-2024 appraisal program, key well testing and a 2D seismic program will be initiated to further understand and define the hydrocarbon bearing resources. This paper highlights some of the key aspects of the Basin Centered Gas Play for the Valhalla area and the associated data to help assess the reservoir characteristics. We discuss the interpretation of the key reservoirs and their future well testing. We further highlight a potential horizontal landing zone within the Laurel as it relates to the prospectivity of future unconventional wells. We are excited to bring our expertise to Australia, emerging as an industry leader in responsibly developed and environmentally conscious natural gas supplies. We believe Project Valhalla will create energy security, socio-economic uplift to the project area's Traditional Owners, local employment opportunities, connections to southeast Asian LNG markets, and a leading cost advantage for WA's manufacturing industry as we build Australia's next great energy company.