Georgina Energy, an upstream explorer with permits in Australia, has completed the water well for its Hussar drilling program in the Officer Basin, with a flow rate of 250,000 to 350,000 litres a day for the rig's water supply. The company said the September 2026 spud date remains on target.

Site works move toward rig mobilization

The water well drilling rig will now move toward the center of the drilling pad to drill and set the 20 inch conductor pipe, the surface casing that stabilizes the top of the well before the main rig begins drilling. That work will happen before the contracted Ensign 970 rig arrives on site. Civil engineers have also excavated the Turkey's Nest, a water storage pond, and the sump that will hold drill cuttings and excess drilling fluid, and have completed waterproof linings for both. Rolling and compacting of the drilling and camp pads has started, site grading and trimming are finished, and gravel has been delivered and graded at the camp pad and along the access road, with additional supplies on site.

Part of the water well output will go toward drilling fluid makeup water. A portion will be treated with reverse osmosis for use in ablutions and cooking at the camp.

Hussar targets a large untested subsalt structure

The Hussar EP513 prospect, a re-entry in Exploration Permit 513, is primarily targeting subsalt reservoirs including the Townsend Formation and fractured Neoproterozoic basement rock for helium, hydrogen and natural gas. Georgina plans to drill to a total depth of about 3,200 meters, a figure that could extend depending on gas shows and reservoir quality. With more than 300 square kilometers of areal closure, the company describes Hussar as one of the largest untested subsalt helium, hydrogen and hydrocarbon prospects onshore Australia. A secondary target, the Kanpa and Hussar formations above the main subsalt zones, has shown strong porosity and hydrocarbon shows in earlier drilling but has not been fully tested.

Fractured basement reservoirs of this kind have produced elsewhere. Vietnam's Bach Ho field, a fractured basement play offshore, peaked at 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent a day and has produced for more than 40 years.

Resource estimate tops US$150 billion in-situ

An independent geological report dated 1 February 2026, prepared by competent person Maki Petkovski, certifies unrisked SPE PRMS net attributable 2U prospective resources at Hussar:

  • 283 billion cubic feet of helium
  • 315 billion cubic feet of hydrogen
  • 2.93 trillion cubic feet of hydrocarbon gas

Using pricing of US$450 per thousand cubic feet for helium, US$2.65 per kilogram for hydrogen and US$8 per thousand cubic feet for hydrocarbon gas, Georgina calculates a combined unrisked in-situ value of about US$152 billion. The company says the estimate draws on Australian Energy Regulator and Helium Price Index benchmarks it developed, and that the figure excludes production, separation and transport-to-market costs, with no certainty that any of the resources will be commercially recovered.

Anthony Hamilton, chief executive officer of Georgina Energy, said the water well provides "a reliable and significant water supply which we now have in place" for the planned drilling operation.