H3 Energy pinpoints multiple gas zones at resurgent WA play

H3 Energy’s Warro gas field in Western Australia.

H3 Energy (ASX: H3E) has unveiled a fresh layer of prospectivity at its big Warro gas field in Western Australia, pinpointing 11 dry, gas-bearing zones in its Warro 3 well that could sharpen the path toward unlocking commerciality for its massive onshore resource.

The company says the latest reworked image log of Warro 3 has identified each zone as a prime candidate for re-testing.

Ranging in thickness from about 9 metres to nearly 25 metres, the intervals align closely with historical data and the new interpretation provides the clearest picture yet of the reservoir’s potential for sustained dry gas production.

H3 says its prior interpretations may have overlooked key correlations in the reservoir for payable gas, with new findings highlighting three main sealing intervals across a 540-metre section.

The company says that many of the dry gas – methane dominant - zones appear free of fractures – well sealed for capturing gas - with only one notable fault near at the bottom of the well, explaining why some areas hold water and others dry gas.

The review further suggests that several of these targets consist of large, continuous sand bodies likely to extend over several kilometres.

The image logs also flag areas of elevated natural permeability within the zones, which could be prioritised to boost commercial gas flow rates.

Importantly, all the new positive commercial validations have come at minimal cost to the company, without introducing any new drilling or financial data.

H3 says that while the re-evaluation of legacy field data looks promising, it is ongoing and will take time to reveal the true economic viability of the Warro field.

By identifying specific, thick and laterally extensive sand packages and understanding how they are connected, we can better design appraisal activities to re-enter, test and deviate from existing wells to delineate productive gas zones. This will give us a better chance of connecting the dry gas zones in the reservoir and potentially achieving a commercial flow.

H3 Energy CEO Nik Sykiotis

From a planning perspective, the review results equip H3’s technical team with the details needed to engineer a new horizontal well, potentially kicking off from existing appraisal wells to keep costs down and accelerate testing.

The company says this approach will help delineate productive gas zones more effectively.

The timing aligns with growing pressures in Western Australia’s gas market, where wholesale prices have climbed sharply since 2020.

The Warro gas field spans some 7000 hectares and ranks as one of the state’s largest undeveloped onshore gas fields.

Located 200 kilometres north of Perth and a mere 30 kilometres from the Dampier-to-Bunbury pipeline, it offers a prime tie-in route to the domestic gas network.

Past efforts by previous operators poured more than $100 million into 3D seismic and four vertical wells, eventually defining a major gas column some 390m in width.

Early tests flowed 1 to 2 million cubic feet per day, even with modest stimulation, but water production tempered the results.

Now, armed with this updated analysis and supportive regulations for reservoir stimulation, H3 sees a viable route to address those historical water challenges through precise completions and modern techniques.

Warro, long parked on the sidelines, is starting to look like a gas asset whose time has come. With serious scale in the right postcode, it lines up neatly with Western Australia’s scramble for dependable local supply, and the next appraisal of the updated model could elevate H3 into a meaningful player in the state’s tightening gas market.

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