Vintage Energy (ASX: VEN) and Vault Energy have entered into an agreement for the sale of gas produced from the Cullen-1 well in EP126 in the Northern Territory’s onshore Bonaparte Basin.
Vault intends to use gas supplied from the exploration well to generate power for mobile, modular, and containerised data centres located onsite, pending initial test results indicating a commercially-viable outcome for both parties.
Vintage holds a 100% interest in Cullen-1, located in the Bonaparte Basin, 350 kilometres southwest of Darwin and 100km northeast of Kununurra.
The well was drilled, logged, cased, and suspended by Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) in 2014 after recording strong gas shows over a 1,000-metre interval and oil shows from shallower tighter sands.
Vintage acquired EP126 with the intention of flow-testing the well, but activity was suspended pending clarification of access after 50% of the permit—including the Cullen-1 site—was declared a ‘reserved area’.
Commercialising Cullen Project
Managing director Neil Gibbins welcomed the agreement as a “promising advance” to test and commercialise Cullen.
“Our plans for this have been in suspension from 2019 due to access uncertainty,” he said.
Vintage has since been advised by the Northern Territory government that it can submit environment management plan applications for exploration activities at EP126 to provide certainty on permit tenure and future activity, subject to regulatory approvals.
“Now, with the expectation this issue will be resolved in the near future, we have agreement with Vault for collaboration and definition of commercial arrangements for gas supply from the well in the event of favourable test results.”
Well-to-Wire Project
Vault director Jack Boman said the collaborative deal would establish the framework for Australia's first natural gas well-to-wire project.
“[This is about] converting gas molecules into electrons and delivering dispatchable power directly into the digital infrastructure sector,” he said.
“We are proud to be pioneering this model alongside Vintage and see Cullen as a defining step in demonstrating what the well-to-wire pathway can deliver for Australia.”
Vault chief executive officer William St Baker said Cullen fit the company’s commercial model, as it “aligns the resource owner with the developer of downstream digital infrastructure, rather than the conventional gas sale pathway”.
