Falcon Oil & Gas today announced the decision by the Northern Territory (“NT“) government to lift the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The company has been waiting around 15 months for this to take place and by the admission of the companies CEO Philip O’quigley ” whilst we were quietly confident it would happen, you never truly know ” after the recent announcement of the lifting of the moratorium we do now.
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The decision by the NT government follows the independent scientific inquiry conclusion that not only could the risks associated with an onshore shale gas industry be minimised to an acceptable level, in some instances, they can be avoided altogether.
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The company has already completed 4 of a 9 Well program with Well testing completed just prior to the moratorium indicated a very promising material gas resource in the Beetaloo sub-basin. As detailed in our 15 February 2017 press release, a resource study based on the Amungee NW-1H well results and other key wells in the Beetaloo Basin estimated an OGIP of 61 TCF and 6.6 TCF gross contingent resource, over an area of 1,968 km2.
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Resumption of work with our joint venture partner, Origin Energy Limited (“Origin“) will start as soon as practical, adopting recommendations of the scientific inquiry and obtaining necessary approvals to complete the remaining work programme.
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Origin plans to drill and fracture stimulate a further five wells to complete the exploration permit commitments.
The company has a cash burn of less than $3 million a year with $9 million of cash in the bank, leaving the company funded for the next 2-3years as the next phase of operations are carried by its partner Origin. O’quigley shares a frank opinion on the companies consideration of divesting or indeed looking to acquire additional assets.
” What we have at Beetaloo alone is so enormous that there is nothing else we could look at anywhere on the horizon that could have an impact on Falcon as a company ”
You can click on this link to see the latest interview on Sky News Australia
