Cullen has also applied for a grant of $100,000 from the Western Australia government to support its drilling program, through the Co-funded Government – Industry Drilling Program under the Royalties for Regions Exploration Incentive Scheme.
The Canning basin is regarded by Cullen as an important exploration frontier for coal with substantial resource potential. A reconnaissance field assessment of Cullen’s tenement areas in the Canning basin was completed in September 2009 and the company is working towards commencing on-ground exploration in the coming 2010 season (April onwards).
Cullen engaged the CSA Global consulting group to undertake geological and geophysical compilation and interpretation work (including seismic data) in order to prioritize areas within its Canning basin project tenements where initial exploration drilling for coal will be focused. Exploratory drilling will commence on E04/1836 to test interpreted coal-bearing stratigraphy and determine potential coal.
Cullen’s drill program is proposed to comprise 15 holes along five traverses. Three of the 15 holes will be cored with an open hole pre-collar; the remaining 12 holes will be open with a possible diamond tail, if coal is intersected. The program is designed to establish the stratigraphy in this part of the basin, correlate the bedrock geology with the seismic data and test for the occurrence of coal in the target horizon.
The position of northeast trending folds and north-northwest trending faults projected to traverse the tenement have been taken into account in planning the drilling on E04/1836 as these may define original depositional sub-basins when coal was being formed.
Cullen considers that E04/1836 covers some 50 strike-km of the Lightjack formation along the northern limb of the St George Ranges Anticline. There is no previous drilling on this tenement, nor is there is any outcrop mapped on the Noonkanbah 1:250,000 geological map sheet, but the Lightjack trend can be interpreted from the structural setting of the Liveringa group in the area.
The GSWA geological interpretation was used for modeling the trend of the coal-bearing component of the Lightjack formation and a review of the structural setting of the target area was compiled by CSA Consultants, Perth, using seismic data.
