Padre Island Project ("PI Project")
Golden Gate recently increased its interest in the Padre Island exploration assets from 10% to 37.5% in the high impact exploration ground.
Principal asset of Golden Gate is a 37.5% participating interest in the PI Project held via its wholly owned subsidiaries, Long Flat Limited, Kindee Oil & gas Texas, LLC and Cathie Energy Texas, LLC. The other main participants in the PI Project are, BNP Petroleum Corporation, a private Texas corporation and its subsidiary BNP Oil & Gas Limited, and Lodore Resources LP, a subsidiary of IB Daiwa and Pantheon Resources, a listed UK company.
Padre Island, located in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico coastline, is a proven hydrocarbon producing area. The PI Project has drilling leases covering an estimated area of ~14,000 hectares along Padre Island. The PI Project has acquired and is interpreting 124,000 hectares of 3D seismic data within the project area.
The PI Project's neighbours around Padre Island include experienced industry players Shell, Exon/Mobil, El Paso, Woodside, Houston Oil & Gas, Santos and Spinnaker Oil.
The PI Project comprises multiple play types including smaller, low risk, shallow prospects and larger, deeper prospects which have seen little drilling attention. The agreements governing the PI Project were recently restructured so that the project now comprises a number of separate joint ventures in the different depth zones. The various joint ventures comprising the PI Project and the participant's respective interests in those joint ventures are set out in the table below:
Successful Drilling
and Production
Since inception the Project has drilled seven exploration wells. Four
of the wells encountered producible gas and were completed and tied into
the South Texas gas grid.
| Well Name | Year Drilled | Result | Status |
| LaPlaya Shallow- 1 | 2002 | Completed as a gas producer | Producing |
| Dunn-Murdock - 1 | 2002 | Completed as a gas producer | Abandoned |
| West Bird Shallow - 1 | 2002 | Completed as a gas producer | Producing |
| Jack Frost - 1 | 2003 | Dry hole | Abandoned |
| Dunn Deep - 1 | 2004 | Completed as a gas producer | Producing |
| Homerun - 1 | 2004 | Discovery well | Abandoned |
| Dunn Peach #6 | 2005 | Completed as a gas producer | Producing |
| Plum | 2006 | Under evaluation | Evaluating |
| Wilson | 2007 | Discovery well | Completing |
| Dunn Deep - 2 | 2007 | Completed as a gas producer | Producing |
| La Playa 2 | 2007 | Testing | Testing |
Annual Sales (net to Golden Gate)
| 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | |
| Gas: mcf | 734,000 | 377,000 | 73,300 | 78,997 | 63,678 |
| Oil/Condensate: Barrels | 7,825 | 3,424 | 498 | 405 | 183 |
3D Seismic
The Project's principal targets are new, previously unexplored prospects within the project area with the potential for significant additional reserves and early cash flow. The 3D seismic data invariably images the reservoir section much better than the 2D seismic data that was available when the fields were first exploited. Experience elsewhere in Texas indicates that modern technology, such as 3D seismic, directional drilling and stratigraphic techniques can substantially increase the original reserves of undrilled fault blocks, attic gas and other previously unrecognised development prospects.
To date, the project area has produced 1.7 tcf (cumulative) of gas from the development of more than 20 fields. The gas is connected into the gas grid of Southern Texas through a working gas-gathering pipeline system on Padre Island, which is accessible throughout the project area. The pipeline system, which has significant unused capacity, is a common carrier available to all gas producers.
Participating Interests
| Golden Gate | Lodore | BNP et al | Pantheon | |
| Producing Fields | ||||
| LaPlaya Shallow | 35.00% | 65.00% | ||
| Dunn Deep #1 | 35.00% | 65.00% | ||
| Dunn Deep #2 | 20.00 % | 72.50% | 7.50% | |
| LaPlaya Deep (zone shut in as well is being used to produce Dunn Deep) | 100.00% | |||
| West Bird (P&A'd) | 70.00% | 30.00% | ||
| Shalow Prospects (To approximately 10,500 feet) | ||||
| El Mar | 35.00% | 65.00% | ||
| Plum Shallow in leases containing 30% of the Structure) |
10.00% | 90.00% | ||
| Plum Shallow in leases containing 70% of the Structure) |
35.00% | 65.00% | ||
| Wilson | 58.23% | 10.00% | 31.77% | |
| Deep Prospects (from approximately 10,500 to 16,000 feet) | ||||
| Plum Deep | 37.50% | 37.50% | 25.00% | |
| Manzano | 37.50% | 37.50% | 25.00% | |
| Ultra Deep (Deeper than 16,000 feet) | 35.00% | 35.00% | 30.00% | |