Drilling of Wilson River-1 well commences

Empyrean Energy plc ("Empyrean" or the "Company"), the oil and gas development company with interests in Australia, Indonesia and the United States, is pleased to announce that rigging up operations for drilling the Wilson River-1 well proceeded smoothly and that Condor Energy Services Ltd has advised that the well spud in at 2.30pm Friday 14 March 2025 local time and that drilling operations have now commenced.

Well Objective:

Wilson River-1 has been designed as a vertical oil exploration well in the Northwest corner of ATP 1173 permit located Southwest Queensland, Australia.

The main objective of the well is to evaluate and test the hydrocarbon potential of a seismically identified up thrown, structural fault bounded high. The Murta, Birkhead and Hutton formations are the primary targets and potential reservoir sands in Cadna-owie (Basal Wyandra) and Namur sequences are secondary targets.

The prognosed total depth of the well is 1450m DRT (Depth Rotary Table) estimated to be approximately 50mMD into the Basement facilitating effective petrophysical analysis of the defined targets.

Forward plan

It is planned to drill 12-1/4" hole section to ~350 mTVD/DRT and then run and cement 9-5/8" casing to surface. Following a successful leak-off test, it is planned to then drill 8-1/2" hole to TD (Total Depth) of ~1450mDRT.

Based on the offset wells data, it is anticipated that the well could reach the TD (Total Depth) within 5-6 days from spudding.

Planned Formation Evaluation:

It is then planned to acquire a "Quad Combo" logging suite in the well for a comprehensive formation evaluation of target zones. This will include Gamma Ray, Density, Neutron, Inline Dipole Sonic, Laterolog Resistivity and Multi-Arm Caliper logs.

Once logs are evaluated, the well will be cased and suspended. It is anticipated that log analysis and specialised petrophysical analysis may take a few weeks after which a cased-hole DST (Drill Stem Test) will be considered depending on the results.

Empyrean CEO, Tom Kelly, stated:"Empyrean is pleased to be drilling another exploration well in a world-class basin. This basin benefits from extensive existing infrastructure, which will enable the rapid commercialisation of any successful discovery. We are excited about the opportunity and look forward to updating our shareholders as we progress".