Senex Energy secures control over gas play in South Australia's Cooper Basin COOPER Basin-focused oil and gas producer Senex Energy has obtained full ownership of a key petroleum exploration licence in return for $7 million worth of benefits to partner Orca. Orca Energy said it agreed to sell its 20 per cent participating interest in unconventional gas but will retain interest in two key assets within the PEL. This includes the Fury oil discovery and Burruna-1 oil exploration well, which will be operated under existing terms but as part of a new joint venture licence under Fury JV. Orca has also obtained free carry for oil exporation and development in the southern Cooper Basin. The new deal cancels Senexs 19.99 per cent stake in Orca, which it acquired in January last year and reimburses Orca for its costs for work on the promising Kingston Rule-1 and Hornet-1 wells, both in PEL 115. Orca executive director Greg Bandy said the agreement was bringing Orca closer to its goal of becoming an oil producer. Senex is yet to reveal potential benefits from the transaction. Last month, Senex revealed it has identified a major new gas field close to critical infrastructure - up to 2.9 trillion cubic feet of prospective resource in a conventional reservoir, including 141 billion cubic feet of contingent resource in a new gas field named Hornet. Production logging data to back the estimates came from its Kingston Rule-1 and Hornet-1 wells. Senex's effort in the area is focused on two permits, PEL 115 and PEL 516. It also has an 80 per cent stake now in PEL 514. The field is less than 30km from the APA Groups Moomba-to-Sydney pipeline.