Since winning its first exploration bid in October 2005, Finder Exploration has secured and operated a total of 22 petroleum exploration and production permits in Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and the United Kingdom.
In the beginning
Finder Exploration was founded in 2005 by Jan Ostby and Odd Arne Larsen, and won its first exploration bid in October of the same year; AC/P 36, located in the northern part of the highly prospective Browse Basin, 80 km north of the giant Ichthys gas field in WA-285-P.
Prior to founding Finder Jan Ostby was involved in the seismic business, working with PGS, Nopec and was a founding partner in Seismic Australia in 1996, which focused on the generation, operation and marketing of multi-client seismic projects in Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.
Finder has an experienced and diverse management team with significant experience in the oil and gas exploration industry and specifically on the North West Shelf, Australia.
Early successes with the Finder business model
An example of the Finder business model was its initial Australian permit AC/P 36 in the northern Browse Basin.
“This permit was completely covered by 3D seismic data and following permit award we undertook a permit-wide 3D seismic data reprocessing, interpretation and reservoir characterisation project.
“Subsequent to this work Murphy Australia Oil and PTTEP Australia Offshore farmed in to enable the drilling of the, Abalone Deep-1 well, which was unfortunately a non-commercial gas discovery. This farmin was the initial entry into the Australian market for both parties,” Finder says.
Since establishment in 2005, Finder has built a significant exploration acreage portfolio in the offshore North West Shelf of Australia and currently has equity in thirteen permits, of which it operates ten.
The company has also concluded a number of successful farmouts with major industry players including Murphy Oil Australia, PTTEP Australia Offshore, Woodside Energy, Hess Exploration (Exmouth), Sasol Petroleum Australia, Perenco (SE) Australia and Apache Northwest, to assist with the risk mitigation and prospect delineation phase of exploration, working towards drilling within these permits.
Operating as a private company
Finder says “As a private company we have enjoyed the ability to focus solely on the business build without the need to worry about the vagaries of the financial markets. This was a blessing through the Global Financial Crisis as we could focus on assessing, acquiring and developing our acreage portfolio, while others spent time liaising with brokers, institutions and shareholders, not to mention the ongoing significant share market compliance and listing requirements.”
“Moving forward as a private player, however, does place some capital constraints on the business. Given the current status of our portfolio, as we are moving to ‘drill-ready’ in the next 1–2 years we are re-assessing our position in the market to ensure we are adequately funded for the next phase of growth, including participation in drilling of multiple wells.”
A future driven by new data
Finder continues to review and bid on new exploration acreage in the various Government acreage release/award rounds. In mid-2010 it was awarded the WA-450-P permit which sits within the Carnarvon ‘heartland’, just south and between the Gorgon and Clio gas fields.
“This is a very prospective permit and subsequent to permit award we farmed down to Apache Northwest who is now in the process of acquiring 3D over the entire permit, to be followed by the drilling of a commitment well, possibly as early as 2012” Finder says.
Finder currently has a program of 5,500 sq km of mainly new and reprocessed 3D seismic data over seven surveys covering eight permits.
“This is an exciting time for the company as this 3D seismic data covers a number of existing prospects and leads. We are optimistic that this will lead to the development of a suite of drillable prospects within the next 12–18 months.”
