Georgina Energy's water well contractor is mobilizing to the Hussar site in Western Australia and will soon start drilling the water bores that the Ensign 970 rig needs before it can spud, the company said. The rig work at the 100%-owned Hussar prospect, permit EP513, is set for the third quarter of 2026.
Water bores clear the way for the rig
The contractor is expected to drill up to two water bores at the Hussar site. Once those wells are drilled and in operation, the Ensign 970 rig, now in the North Perth Basin, will move to Hussar. Georgina said the Q3 2026 drill testing timeline has not changed, and the drilling program is planned to run 50 days from spud to completion, subject to adjustments as work proceeds. Harlequin and partners are funding the drilling program and the site infrastructure needed to bring Hussar into production.
Permits and equipment
Pre-drill site inspections are underway to check the work against the Well Management Plan approved by Western Australia's Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration. Georgina's wholly owned subsidiary, Westmarket Oil & Gas, lodged that plan in 2025. Georgina and its technical consultant, Aztech Well Construction, are coordinating with suppliers to move casing, wellhead and other equipment through customs, and to line up service support for electric logging, casing running and cementing, drilling fluid engineering, wellsite geology, and mud logging and gas sampling.
A subsalt target with three gases
Georgina plans to drill Hussar to 3,200 meters, targeting the Townsend Formation and fractured Neoproterozoic basement rock beneath a salt layer, for helium, hydrogen and natural gas. IGR has certified unrisked 2U prospective resources at Hussar of 285 Bcf of helium and 315 Bcf of hydrogen, with combined potential in-situ value of US$129 billion, using prices of US$450 per Mcf for helium and US$2.65 per kilogram for hydrogen. The prospect also carries net attributable 2U prospective recoverable resources of 2.93 Tcf of natural gas, with potential in-situ value of US$23.4 billion at US$8 per Mcf. Those in-situ values exclude the cost of production, separation and transport to market.
CEO comment
Georgina chief executive Anthony Hamilton said the company is "pleased with progress to date" on the rig mobilization, and that planning and civil engineering work for the site continue ahead of the Q3 2026 test. Hussar covers 300 square kilometers of areal closure, which Hamilton called "one of the largest subsalt helium, hydrogen and hydrocarbons prospects onshore in Australia."
