About Bass Strait Oil Company

 

Bass Strait Oil Company was awarded its first Gippsland Basin permit in 1998 and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004 (ASX code: BAS). The Company has a clear exploration focus on the prolific southeast Australia region and is lead by experienced industry professionals, including several ex-Shell personnel. From its Melbourne base, the Company has consistently maintained a hands-on, technically-based focus on the region. It has built a permit portfolio that comprises almost 14,000 sq km across five offshore and two onshore permits in the productive Gippsland, Bass and Otway Basins.

 

Bass Strait Oil Company’s strategic focus is based on an anticipated resurgence of exploration interest in the productive southeast Australia basins. The drivers for this include; access to prospects of material scale in world-class basins, a database of modern 3D data defining new targets and play types, regional infrastructure and market development, the benefits of Australia’s stable low-cost jurisdiction and the increasing value of oil and gas resources.

 

Across its permit portfolio, BAS seeks to retain operatorship of its joint ventures (currently 5 of 7 permits) and typically holds large permit interests. This approach tends to optimise the benefits of hands-on operational experience and the control of exploration direction, as well as to maximise the Company’s leverage to potential success.

 

BAS has safely operated the drilling of a total of five offshore wells since 2001 and operated, or participated in, a number of 2D and 3D seismic surveys. Two of the Company’s wells were non-commercial hydrocarbon discoveries: gas at Moby-1 in 2004 and gas/condensate at ZaneGrey-1 in 2005.   

 

BAS has also continually invested in seismic data and modern exploration technologies allowing it to assemble an extensive database, including over 7,000 sq km of 3D seismic in the offshore Gippsland Basin. All of this 3D data has been acquired since 2001, adding significant value to the Company’s acreage position and underpinning the Company’s exploration programme.

 

 

Three rigs are scheduled to drill for a number of operators in the southeast Australian offshore region during 2008 to 2010 and BAS anticipates that this activity will re-focus attention on the discovery potential of the area and of its own portfolio.

 

BAS has also identified high-impact Gippsland Basin potential in its Vic/P41 and Vic/P47 permits. In these permits, the Company is seeking farmin partners to fund possible drilling of large 3D-defined prospects in 2009. These include targets analogous to projects in nearby non-BAS permits including the Longtom, Basker/Manta and Kipper fields.

 

BAS will also record new offshore 2D seismic surveys in the Gippsland and Bass Basins in May and June 2008 and it is evaluating the potential for an onshore oil project based on an old oil discovery in its PEP167 permit in the Otway Basin