The Australian Securities Exchange-listed company won four exploration blocks from the Queensland government, namely ATP 1127P, ATP 1130P, ATPP 1137P and ATP 1150P.

The new acreage is an extension of the Eromanga Basin conventional oil and shale plays discovered in ATP 999P by Exoma and joint venture partner CNNOC Gas & Power.

With the acquisition under its belt, the JV now has access to a total 46,000sq.km across the Galilee and Eromanga basins.

Exoma chairman Brian Barker said it was an exciting time for the company.

“The new areas will add extensive acreage to our portfolio and are of significant strategic importance as they provide Exoma with an unparalleled acreage position as we work to unlock the huge potential in our shale oil and gas, conventional and CSG hydrocarbon systems,” he said.

The permit areas have been previously explored for conventional oil contained in the Brikhead/Hutton system of the Eromanga Basin.

The acquisition areas also lie on top of Toolebuc shale, with the entirety of the permit areas covering the shale.

Exoma said its predicted shale maturity fairway extended west and south into all four permits.

It will also gain access to the Permian coal measures, with the western edge underlying ATP 1127P and ATP 1130P, though Exoma said the coal existed within a deeper, central part of the basin.

Exoma and its JV partner will have to undertake the native title process before it can do anything on the permits though, with a native title deadline set for May 2014.

In the meanwhile, Exoma will still have a full drilling plate, with the JV aiming to catch up for lost time on its existing permits after heavy rains in the region held it back.

The 2012 exploration program involves the possible drilling of 22 wells comprising shale, coal seam gas and conventional oil wells, funded by JV partner CNOOC across five permits in the Galilee Basin.

The JV will aim to drill 13 CSG wells targeting the Permian coal measures across 16,000sq.km, with the aim of identifying key areas for pilot testing in 2013.

Exoma said the drilling of the wells would aim to go some way towards proving up to a potential 31 trillion cubic feet resource, while they would also hit the Toolebuc shale, providing data for the shale program.

On the shale font, the JV is aiming to drill and core seven wells targeting the Toolebuc over three key permits as it hopes to identify “sweet spots” for production testing next year.

According to Exoma, early exploration indicates the oil and gas potential of the shale is in excess of an average 3 million barrels of oil equivalent in place per square kilometre.

It spudded the Darr-1 shale core well last week.

This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication EnergyNewsBulletin.net.