Strike Managing Director David Wrench spoke with Gas Today, saying that the drill likely to be used would be "one of those already operating in the Cooper Basin under Beach Energy, and most likely a conventional drill that is capable of reaching those depths".

The exploration program will drill two wells in PEL 94 and PEL 95, with Beach Energy as operator. The permits, found on the southern flank of the Cooper Basin, will be targeting shales that are 1,000 m below the earth’s surface, much shallower than the Holdfast and Encounter wells drilled by Beach Energy earlier this year that preside over the centre of the basin.

Strike believes that the shallow wells will have the ability to produce liquids as well as dry gas due to the thermal maturation and lower temperature found at those depths. Mr Wrench believes that this will position Strike to potentially develop a shale resource that is economically attractive, producing both liquids and dry gases, with lower drilling costs associated. Mr Wrench stated "Yes, it will be cheaper but to what magnitude is hard to say at this stage. We will need to do the testing and the work to find out."

"This parallels what we see in the United States. Strike has got an interest in a project in the Eagle Ford Shale in the US, where we are playing the gas condensate thermal mass window. We are looking at exactly the same thermometer and looking at a level where there are both gas and liquids generated from the source rocks. I guess we believe that the same phenomenon is happening here in the Cooper Basin around the flanks; there will certainly be gas but there may well be liquids as well,” said Mr Wrench.

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Shale exploration in the Cooper Basin has taken off with the success of Beach Energy’s Holdfast-1 and Encounter-1 wells, and Senex’s Vintage Crop well.

“There is no doubt that Australia’s shale resources are enormous,” said Mr Wrench.

The Senex successfully operated Vintage Crop well is located 3 kilometres from the boarder of Strike’s PEL 96, where they are proposing to establish half the exploration program.

Strike also confirmed to Gas Today that it has no short-term plans for the next six months for any field development in the Carnarvon Basin acreage, but that the long-term plan will be to commercialise the undeveloped Riverlea gas field.

Strike’s future organisation direction has been re-energised by a new senior management team with “the right balance of technical operations and financial and commercial experience” according to Mr Wrench.

The new team is headed by Mr Wrench who was previously a non-Executive Director of the company. Ben Thomas will spearhead US operations in Houston, Andrew Hooper-Nguyen has been appointed the new Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Dimsey has joined the Perth office to run Australian operations.