The Pavo North oil discovery was made in 2022, with the Pavo-1 well intersecting excellent reservoirs and confirming net oil pay across a zone of 46 metres.

The discovery at Pavo North has been assessed to hold 43 million barrels of oil (gross, 2C), with the discovered resource lying just 46 kilometres to the east of the planned Dorado oil field development. 

Both the Pavo and Dorado discoveries contain an extra light, sweet product, meaning the proposed Dorado floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel could handle production from Pavo North via a simple tie-back development. 

The Pavo discovery has opened up the potential of the Bedout sub-basin by proving the existence of hydrocarbons and high-quality reservoirs a considerable distance east and south-east from the Dorado and Roc fields, de-risking other prospects within Carnarvon’s portfolio.

Pavo lies in offshore permit WA-438-P, where Carnarvon holds a 20% interest with operator Santos Ltd holding 70% interest and CPC Corporation the remaining 10% interest.