Activity details

Organisation	Emperor Energy Limited
Project
Activity types	Drilling Other survey
In-force EP	8284
Submission date	31 March, 2025
Outcome	Accepted
Acceptance date	29 September, 2026
Locations	Gippsland
Start date	Pending titleholder notification
Stop date	Pending titleholder notification
Lifecycle Classification	Exploration

Please note: activity start and stop dates are based on notifications provided by the titleholder.

Titleholder contact

Activity Description

Emperor Energy are planning to drill a single exploration and appraisal well known as Judith-2 in Petroleum Exploration Permit VIC/P47 to identify hydrocarbons present within sandstone reservoirs. This is a follow-up to the 1989 Judith-1 Well gas discovery. The activities carried out in this EP will be located in Commonwealth waters, approximately 36 km south of Marlo, Victoria, at the closest landfall to the Operational Area. The Operational Area (4 km x 4 km2 area around the Judith-2 well location) is the extent within which petroleum activities will occur. The Judith-2 well may be drilled at any time from December 2026 – December 2027 (inclusive). Emperor Energy proposes to undertake activities that consist of: Seabed surveys: - Geophysical surveys (including multibeam echo sounding, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler and high resolution two dimensional (2D) shallow reflective imaging, to identify hazards at the well location). - Geotechnical seabed surveys (including borehole and core sampling, piezo cone penetrometer testing). The geophysical and geotechnical surveys will be undertaken separately with special purpose vessels, prior to drilling. The site surveys will be undertaken by different vessels at different times with the geophysical survey estimated to take up to 4 days and the geotechnical survey estimated to take up to 5 days. The Geophysical and Geotechnical surveys may be conducted at any point between September 2026 and December 2027. Drilling and completion activities, including: - MODU placement - Drilling activities - Well evaluation (including vertical seismic profiling) - Well testing (including flaring of any produced hydrocarbons) - Plugging and abandoning the well The drill rig will be supported by up to three vessels with helicopters used for crew change. Drilling is estimated to take up to 60 days. Following drilling and appraisal activities the well will be permanently plugged and abandoned, with the casing cut below seabed. The activity will be conducted entirely within Commonwealth waters in accordance with the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Cth) (OPGGS Act 2006) and Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Environment) Regulations 2023 (OPGGS(E)).

Location map (click to enlarge)

Accepted EP Documents

EP Document	REGOPS-841858483-349066 (66.9 MB)
OPEP Document	REGOPS-841858483-349069 (10.5 MB)
OSMP Document	REGOPS-841858483-349070 (996 KB)

Related EP assessments

8284 (Click to view)