HOUSTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- New discoveries off the coast of Western Australia could produce more than 14 million barrels of oil, Texas oil company Apache Corp. announced.
Apache said it encountered oil and gas deposits at its Balnave license area off the coast of Western Australia. Preliminary tests yielded more than 9,000 barrels of oil and 13 million cubic feet of natural gas, which the energy company said "confirmed good resource durability."
Thomas Maher, the regional vice president for Apache, said, "We estimate gross ultimate recoverable oil could be in the range of 14 million to 19 million barrels."
The gas discoveries associated with the field off the coast of Western Australia supply the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project run by U.S. supermajor Chevron.
Chevron, in a statement, said it expects South Korea to purchase 1.5 million tons of LNG from the Wheatstone project every year for the next 20 years.
