Giant Rig Rolls into Strike’s Aus Prospect

A giant drill rig operated by US multinational Halliburton is arriving at Australian junior Strike Energy’s Cooper Basin-based onshore Klebb Field, Strike said January 23.

“This milestone marks the beginning of the Halliburton lead operations for the drilling and fracture stimulation of Jaws-1,” Strike said, adding that the rig will arrive over the next 96 hours.

“Ensign 965 is one of the largest and most powerful land rigs in Australia, with a hook load of 700,000lb and over 2,000hp of hydraulic pumping capacity,” the company said.

The Jaws-1 well is part of PEL96 of which Strike is operator with 66.667% , and Australian Gasfields Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy World Corporation, has the rest. Strike has designs on commercialising Cooper Basin resources to feed into the tight east coast Australian market.