ADX Energy has breathed new life into a pair of its old Austrian wells, using a clever workover program to boost its total net production in the country by a solid 35 per cent to approximately 285 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD).
The company says a “behind pipe perforation program” – a technique of opening up new oil and gas flow from existing wells – at its wholly owned Vienna Basin fields successfully tapped into previously unproduced zones in two existing wells.
The move added approximately 75 BOEPD to the company’s tally, comprising 24 barrels of oil and 52 BOEPD of gas. The result lifted total production at the Vienna Basin fields from about 150 BOEPD to 220 BOEPD.
The new production from the Vienna Basin is also particularly profitable, coming with low incremental operating costs and a royalty rate of less than one per cent. The fields are also connected by pipeline to the major OMV Schwechat refinery near Vienna, ensuring a simple and low-cost path to market.
The Vienna Basin remains a key cash cow for the company as it works away on broader exploration and development plans across the balance of ADX’s Austrian portfolio.
Oil uplift was also fuelled by improved performance from the company’s Anshof oil field 200km to the southwest, where optimisation programs have managed to coax extra barrels from its established wells. A twin-well setup has delivered impressive uptime at full production, while reservoir behaviour has confirmed a connected oil pool, supporting stable recovery.
The timing for squeezing more domestic production out of the ground couldn’t be better, as domestic oil sources once again become strategically pivotal. The war in Iran has kicked off again this week, closing the Strait of Hormuz and boosting oil prices by more than 10 per cent to more than $80 a barrel.
While the current production figures are encouraging, it’s the latent capacity in ADX’s portfolio that could really raise the bar. The infrastructure at its Anshof field, for instance, is designed to handle up to 3000 barrels per day, giving the company ample headroom to fast-track significantly higher volumes to market.
The company is now looking to build on its recent success at Anshof with a program of infill and appraisal drilling to boost production slated to begin in 2027.
The 35 per cent increase in net Austrian production from the recent well work at our Vienna Basin fields is a positive outcome with further production growth identified from future work programs. We are planning a potential new development well and an appraisal well to be drilled in 2027. New wells on the field can be tied into infrastructure immediately at minimal cost, thereby enhancing cash flow and economic returns.
The well workovers constitute just one part of ADX’s multi-pronged growth strategy in Austria.
Earlier in 2024, the company hit a significant oil discovery at its high-impact Welchau-1 well in Upper Austria. Post-drill analysis has since pointed to an up-dip oil resource with a mean prospective size of 18 million barrels. Promisingly, that discovery sits above a much larger, undrilled gas target with prospective resources of 387 billion cubic feet.
The company also recently hit gas at its HOCH-1 shallow well as part of a new shallow-well program within the company’s ADX-AT-1 exploration license in Upper Austria. The hole flowed at a rate of 2.8 million standard cubic feet per day during testing – equivalent to about an extra 450 BOEPD.
Although the target reservoir came in slightly thinner than expected, the gas flowed from just one of as many as eight gas-bearing zones identified in the well, leaving plenty of upside still untapped.
Management believes the Basin Floor Fan sands stretch across a sizeable five to eight square-kilometre footprint, meaning even relatively thin reservoirs could host commercially attractive gas volumes.
That theory is backed by the neighbouring Hall Formation fields, which have already produced more than 233 billion cubic feet of gas. Better still, HOCH-1 is unlikely to be the end of the story, with ADX already holding permits to drill its GOLD-1 and SCHOE-1 shallow gas prospects later this year.
With smart operational wins delivering immediate cash flow and massive exploration targets like Welchau waiting in the wings, ADX is jostling to become Europe’s next strategic energy provider.
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