Tenement Information
| Tenement | Area (km²) | Location | Operator | CTP Interest | Other JV Participants | |
| Participant Name | Beneficial Interest (%) | |||||
| PEP 169 | 1,135 | Onshore Otway Basin (Vic) | ADZ Energy | 20% | ADZ Energy (Victoria) Pty Ltd | 80% |
JV History
In early 2026, Central acquired a 20% interest in PEP 169 from ADZ Energy (Victoria) Pty Ltd, with ADZ Energy remaining as operator.
Description and Geology
The Otway Basin has a long history of delivering significant discoveries, both onshore and offshore. The primary target is the Waarre Formation, a high-quality sand with world-class porosity and productivity.
The Enterprise field, located immediately to the south of PEP 169, and now producing into the Victorian gas market, is interpreted to spill into PEP169. The Enterprise North target in PEP 169 has seismic amplitude support at the Waarre A and Waarre C horizons. Significantly, all recent Waarre Formation discoveries in the Otway (onshore and offshore) are amplitude supported, including Annie-1 (2019), Enterprise-1 (2020), Artisan-1 (2021) and Essington-1 (2025). Notably, Amplitude Energy reported a 94% success rate across 17 amplitude supported exploration wells in the offshore Otway.
Drilling targets, supported by seismic amplitudes, are also the subject of ongoing and upcoming drilling campaigns in the offshore Otway being conducted by Conoco Philips, Beach Energy and Amplitude Energy.
Exploration opportunities
The Enterprise North (EN) prospect is considered to be one of the most prospective onshore targets in Australia. EN is mapped on seismic as a fault block 2.5km to the north of the Enterprise gas field, discovered in 2020.
EN is ideally located within the high value Victorian gas market, and land access has been secured close to existing pipelines and three existing processing facilities (Iona, Otway and Athena Gas Plants).
The EN well is planned to be drilled in mid 2026.
The EN exploration well will target natural gas in the Waarre Formation of the onshore Otway Basin at an estimated depth of approximately 2,000 m. The well is planned to be drilled in the southern part of PEP 169 approximately 8.5 km southwest of the Iona Gas Field and 2.5 km north of the offshore Enterprise gas discovery.
Central estimates there to be up to 79 Bcf of gas in place in the Waarre C formation at Enterprise North (Central 20% share: ~16 Bcf). Additional prospectivity may exist in the Waarre A and Eumerella formations but resource estimation for these secondary targets has not yet been formally completed.
| 100% JV | Central 20% interest | |||
| Enterprise North (PEL169) | Gas in place1 (Bcf) | Prospective Resource1 (Bcf) | Gas in place1 (Bcf) | Prospective Resource1 (Bcf) |
| High estimate | 78.9 | 51.3 | 15.8 | 10.3 |
| Best estimate | 43.9 | 28.6 | 8.8 | 5.7 |
| Low estimate | 5.4 | 3.5 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
Note 1 – Cautionary statement: the estimated quantities of petroleum that may potentially be recovered by the application of a future development Project(s) relate to undiscovered accumulations. These estimates have both a risk of discovery and a risk of development. Further exploration appraisal and evaluation is required to determine the existence of a significant quantity of potentially recoverable hydrocarbons.
The resources above were first reported to ASX on 27 January 2026. Central is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in those announcements and all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed.
The volumes of prospective resources included above represent unrisked recoverable volumes. No petroleum reserves or contingent resources have been attributed to Enterprise North at this time.
Modelling of a P50 success outcome indicates that possible gas production rates at Enterprise North results in a near doubling of Central’s current gas production rates. Given the high permeability of the target formations, we anticipate producing over half of the gas over a relatively short 3-year period given the formation’s expected high permeability and flow rates.
If successful, the Enterprise North project or any of the several other significant gas targets already identified in the permit, would be highly value accretive to Central, with strong ex-field gas pricing expected and relatively low infrastructure CAPEX required. Gas supplied from Enterprise North is likely to command strong ex-field gas prices and margin due to high gas prices in the Victorian market and relatively low transportation costs given the permit’s proximity to market.
Given the high historic success rates in the area, the EN well will be designed as a production well, enabling rapid delivery of gas to market in a success case. Consequently, only minimal wellhead facilities will be required to bring the gas online.
Beyond EN, PEP169 also has significant running room for further growth with 18 further conventional prospects and leads identified, including several significant amplitude-supported targets in close proximity to infrastructure.
