Armour Energy has lodged applications for retention licences (RL) in the Northern Territory over portions of its McArthur Basin exploration licences.
The company is the first operator in the basin to lodge applications for RLs and only the second operator since 1990 to submit them in the Northern Territory.
The exploration permits, 171 and 190, have been targeted by the company for both conventional and unconventional gas potential since 2012.
With successful exploration programs through 2012 and 2015, it has made multiple conventional discoveries in the Coxco Dolomite conventional reservoir with the Gylder 1 ST1 and Cow Lagoon 1.
The grant of the RLs will also allow Armour to progress the discoveries within the RL areas towards commercial development and the award of petroleum licences.
Armour has booked contingent resources based on the Glyde 1 ST1 discovery, which flowed sales quality natural gas at a rate of 3.33 MMscf a day.
Chief executive officer Brad Lingo said the applications were a great step towards supplying local Northern Territory businesses and helping the NT Government and the Federal Government with their gas led recovery objectives.
“The company is also excited abut the opportunity to help remote communities’ transition from diesel to gas to renewable energy,” Lingo said.
“More work clearly needs to be done but to deliver a material reduction debt against the backdrop of the challenges that 2020 brought with the COVID-19 pandemic shows the resilience and commitment of the company.”
Armour is in preliminary discussions with third parties for the supply of gas with the intention of producing and selling gas from 2022 onwards.