Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd reported a 60-day initial production (“IP60”) test result of 6.8 mn cubic feet per day at the horizontal Shenandoah S2-2H ST1 well, drilled over a length of 1,671 metres in the Amungee Member B-Shale formation of the Beetaloo Basin, Northern Territory, Australia. This flow rate marks the best performance ever recorded in the Beetaloo, according to the company.
Technical performance and international comparison
The company stated that the average flow rate, normalised over a 10,000-foot horizontal section, reached 12.4 mn cubic feet per day. This rate is in line with the average observed across more than 11,000 wells in the dry gas zone of the Marcellus Shale in the United States over a twelve-month production period. According to Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd, these results demonstrate the commercial deliverability of the Beetaloo Sub-basin to supply the domestic gas market on Australia’s east coast, which typically trades at a premium to the Henry Hub price in the United States.
The exit rate remains on a low-decline curve at 6.4 mn cubic feet per day, with a wellhead pressure of 720 psi. The decline recorded over the last thirty days of testing is reported to be lower than that of the previously drilled Shenandoah South 1H well in the same area, according to the company.
Launch of the 2025 drilling campaign
Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd has also confirmed the launch of its 2025 drilling campaign, which will see up to three new 10,000-foot horizontal wells drilled back-to-back in the coming months. These operations are set to complete the drilling phase of the Shenandoah South pilot programme, comprising five wells in total.
The Australian subsidiary Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited will not bear any drilling costs for these three new wells, having reduced its participation to 0% in this phase of the project, as previously announced. This investment structure enables the parent company to focus on analysing results and exploiting the data collected.
The initial production tests, which exceed the commercial threshold set by Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd at 3 mn cubic feet per day normalised for every 1,000 metres of horizontal section, are being closely monitored by the Australian energy sector. Philip O’Quigley, Chief Executive Officer of Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd, stated that the well’s IP60 flow rates confirm Beetaloo’s ability to match top-performing shale operations in the United States, while providing new benchmarks for the Australian gas industry.
