Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN), or MinRes, has unveiled the maiden oil and gas estimates for hydrocarbon deposit volumes at its WA-based Lockyer and Erregulla gas projects.
The WA-based miner has, in relatively recent history, forayed into local gas production as the company is believed to want its own gas sources to power mining operations.
The company has been coughing up for gas exploration this year and in 2023 was saddling up to take a stake in assets alongside Gina Rinehart who, for her purposes, wants gas the same reason MinRes does.
So, what idea does MinRes have of what it’s got underground? From the outside, Lockyer is the bigger project.
Lockyer has a maiden 2C contingent resource for 435 petajoules (PJ) of sales gas and 3.3 million barrels (3.3MMbbl) of associated condensate.
Converting 435 PJ to barrels of oil using desktop methods, that equals out to around 71MMbbl – MinRes cited 76 million barrels of oil equivalent (76MMboe) on Monday. Barrels of oil equivalent is used to measure gas sales in barrels. A “risked” 2U estimate of prospective total gas comes in at 487 billion cubic feet.
Should those numbers reflect reality, MinRes is sitting on one of WA’s largest known onshore gas reserves.
Erregulla, MinRes notes, covers two gas pools, called Lockyer and North Erregulla respectively. That takes it over 18sq.km. .
The Erregulla Project, meanwhile, sits at a maiden 2C contingent resource of 31.6MMboe – another record-breaker for WA since Barrow Island in 1964 (though, that depends on those numbers being accurate.)
“Our Perth Basin conventional oil and gas discoveries are among the largest onshore finds in Western Australia, with significant upside on these two exploration permits alone,” MinRes chief Chris Ellison said.
“With the commissioning of our new exploration rig, we are just getting started and the Energy division is firming up targets on the largest acreage holding in the highly prospective Perth and Carnarvon basins.
“Developing the Perth Basin remains subject to sensible WA Government domestic gas policy, and MinRes will consider all development and partnership options to maximise value from our exploration success.”
MIN last traded at $38.88/sh.