BEETALOO Basin focused Empire Energy has begun fraccing operations at its recently drilled Carpentaria-3 horizontal well.

Empire plans to stimulate up to 40 stages across 2000 metres of the horizontal section of the well. 

It will be the biggest frac in Australia. 

Empire said it will be double the size of work undertaken at the earlier Carpentaria-2H well which was stimulated across 21 stages across 927 metres. 

It is also somewhat cheaper after Empire took learnings from earlier wells and applied them across its current operations. 

Total cost for drilling the well is $10 million, below the previously budgeted $12.3 million. 

"It is encouraging that our operations team is driving significant cost efficiencies already, and this program will not only provide us with more flow rates from the Carpentaria-3H well in the new year, but also critical insights into how to further enhance gas flow productivity," Empire managing director Alex Underwood said. 

In parallel to this, Empire has commenced flow testing at the Carpentaria-2H well and installed a production logging tool to gain detailed data on flow rates from each of the 21 frac stages. 

Its fourth well, Carpentaria-4 is due to be spud next week. 

Carpentaria-4 is a vertical exploration well aimed at proving the target Velkerri shales stretch across Empire's permit. 

The previous wells have all focused on the west of Exploration Permit 187. Carpentaria-4 will be drilled in the east.

Empire is hopeful the well intersects gas and results in a material increase in resources. 

Empire shares were up 2.6% at 19.5 cents. The company had a market cap of $147 million. 

Source: Energy News Bulletin