Bengal Energy Ltd. has commenced field operations with the goal of transforming the Company into an operated producer for the first time in Australia. The anticipated incremental production has the potential to materially increase Company production levels to 550 to 700 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). This increased production, coupled with recent spikes in benchmark Brent crude oil and Australia’s East Coast natural gas prices, has the potential to significantly improve cash generating capability and position the Company for continuous growth.
At Wareena, two wells will be restarted with the goal of reducing or eliminating water production to promote gas production. Cumulative historic natural gas production from the two wells was more than six billion cubic feet. The associated pipelines will be reactivated allowing sales and export of gas via the Coonaberry compression station into the Santos raw gas infrastructure with natural gas transported to the Moomba processing facility. The wells will be ready for extended production testing in April and the Company expect to start exporting gas via the recommissioned pipeline in late Q3. The Company will provide an update on expected rates after the initial testing phase.
At Caracal, the Company plans to reinstate and stimulate the Caracal 1 well to start producing commercial volumes of light oil. The crude will be lifted by Bengal’s refurbished Lufkin Roadrunner pumping unit which will be onsite in April. The oil will be gravity separated in a tank and then offloaded into road tankers. Bengal recently signed an offtake agreement with the neighbouring IOR refinery in Eromanga. The tank farm is staged and sized for an expansion of the production site based on additional producers. Upon starting production, the Caracal production area is earmarked for further development of additional oil prospects.
“Bringing both of these sites into production is the culmination of several years of work in establishing the Company as an independent operator in the Cooper Basin with material production generating free cashflow. We are looking forward to growing our organic portfolio of innovative, cost effective, local and sustainable practices with our many regional partners.”, reflects Kai Eberspaecher, Chief Operating Officer.
“Bengal Energy is generating CAD$80-85/bbl in field netback from our non-operated Cuisinier field oil production today. We have no debt, and all our free cashflows are getting deployed directly into our operated Wareena and Caracal project work. Several insiders – both Directors, Executive Management, and friends and family – participated in our equity financing announced last week. Our future growth lies entirely in our operated assets, and we are excited to take the first step towards our growth this year with the commencement of the operated Wareena and Caracal project activities”, added Chayan Chakrabarty, Chief Executive Officer.
About Bengal
Bengal Energy Ltd. is an international junior oil and gas exploration and production company with assets in Australia. The Company is committed to growing shareholder value through international exploration, production and acquisitions. Bengal’s common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol “BNG”. Additional information is available at www.bengalenergy.ca