Carnarvon Petroleum (ASX: CVN) and private partner Finder Exploration have received approval to farm out their Phoenix blocks offshore Western Australia to Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) and JX Nippon.
The approval from the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator for the farm-out of the WA-435-P and WA-437-P exploration permits paves the way for Apache to spud the Phoenix South prospect, which is tentatively scheduled for late 2013.
Apache will hold a 40% stake in the two permits while JX Nippon will have a 20% interest. Both Carnarvon and Finder will farm down to 20% from 50%.
Apache and JX Nippon are expected to pay Carnarvon and Finder for past costs on the permits in the current quarter. They will also cover the cost of drilling the Phoenix South well and contingent on its results, the well targeting the Roc Prospect as well.
The Phoenix South prospect is located within WA-435-P and targets gas in lower Triassic reservoirs.
Roc is located in WA-437-P and also targets gas in the lower Triassic.
Each prospect has been estimated, by Carnarvon and Finder, to have the potential to contain multi trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and significant associated volumes of liquids.
Both of located in the immediate vicinity of the Phoenix-1 gas find.
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