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- Drilling commenced at Canyon-3 in Taroom Trough
- First well in fully funded 2026/27 appraisal program
- Four vertical appraisal wells will be drilled initially
- Utilising purpose-designed rig for long-reach horizontal drilling
Omega Oil & Gas (ASX:OMA) has commenced drilling operations at Canyon-3, another key step in confirming the Taroom Trough in Queensland has the potential to become a nationally significant new source of oil and gas.
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Canyon 3 is the first well in the company’s 2026/27 appraisal program using the H&P FlexRig 648, representing Omega’s largest drilling campaign to date.
The program will comprise four vertical appraisal wells, followed by one or two horizontal wells up to 2,000m long, with further rig contract options available if required.
CEO and MD, Trevor Brown, said the program is designed to further de-risk the highly attractive, Permian unconventional play, demonstrate resource scale, establish repeatable commercial flow rates and mature Omega’s resource base.
He told shareholders the data gained will reduce geological uncertainty and define the key technical parameters required to support future commercial development.
“The commencement of drilling at Canyon-3 marks an important milestone for Omega as the first well in our exciting 2026/27 appraisal program, designed to demonstrate the scale and quality of oil and gas-bearing reservoirs at multiple levels across our highly attractive Taroom Trough acreage area,” Mr Brown said.
“This program follows our highly successful 2024/25 program when we proved the concept that strong flow rates of oil and gas could be obtained from deep reservoirs within the Taroom Trough by applying horizontal drilling and fracture stimulation technology.”
The “play-opening” Canyon-1H horizontal well flowed strong rates of oil and gas from the Canyon Sandstone reservoir interval.
“Our 2026/27 campaign aims to take the next step, by proving that oil and gas bearing reservoirs of similar quality are widespread across our acreage area, and by providing evidence of the enormous scale of the oil and gas resources within the eastern Taroom Trough,” Mr Brown said.
“We are excited to commence our play-defining, 2026/27 appraisal program with the drilling of the Canyon-3 well and to continue progressing our assets towards commercial development.
“Over the course of our program our clear goal is to demonstrate that the deep reservoirs within Queensland’s Taroom Trough can make a major contribution to Australia’s future prosperity and energy security.”
Leading oilfield company SLB’s modelling indicates that a single 2,000m horizontal development well at 1,000m well spacing drilled into the Canyon Sandstone reservoir layer could deliver a 10-year estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 0.95 million barrels of oil equivalent (MBOE) or 5.72 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas equivalent.
Results from the four vertical wells will optimise horizontal well placement and provide technical data required to assess the resource base and commercial potential
Omega remains fully funded to execute its largest appraisal campaign to date, providing a pipeline of value catalysts over the next 12 months.
OMA was up 4.63% to 56.5¢. Mkt cap $291.8M.
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