News

March 03, 2010

Rains Stops Play In The Cooper Basin As Vic Pet Prepares For Major Drilling Push In 2010

Just as production was marching in the right direction for ASX-listed Victoria Petroleum, the rain has put a halt to play. Ongoing heavy rains in northern South Australia have caused basin-wide flooding in the Cooper Basin, one of the company’s key theatres of operation. The floods have left roads impassable and the trucking of crude from Vicpet’s Cooper Basin oilfields to the Moomba-Port Bonython pipeline has been suspended until the road system can be safely re-opened. The ASX company reckons this could be another six to eight weeks, which will leave rather a hole in its Q1 production numbers and a hiatus in its busy drilling programme.

This is disappointing after the strong performance of the quarter ended December 31, which saw production from the South Australian Cooper Basin climb by 25 per cent to 545 barrels per day and net oil sales jump by 83 per cent to A$3.1 million for the three month period.  More is expected this year as the company delivers a 30-well drilling programme across its core oil project in the Cooper Basin and its coal seam gas (CSG) interests in the Surat Basin of Queensland.

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