An Australian company has it may have made a major oil discovery in the Panhandle. BlackStar Petroleum says 2 wells it drilled in the Niobrara and Codell formations in Banner County near the Wyoming border might produce between 4.3 million and 23.3 million barrels of oil.

BlackStar says the wells are geochemically similar to the Silo Oil Field in Wyoming and the Jake Well in northeast Colorado. The Silo Field near Laramie has produced over 10-million barrels of oil since 1981 while the Jack Well had an initial production 4 years ago of more than 1,500 barrels a day.

Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission director Bill Sydow says he’s encouraged by the BlackStar report because while oil production just across the state line in northeastern Colorado is up nearly 50% since 2009, no new oil has been found in Nebraska during that time.

The BlackStar results still are confidential and don’t have to be reported to the state oil commission for another year or until it begins oil production. The has 40,000-acres in Banner County under lease, but that is its only U-S project.

Nebraska produced only a little more than 2.5 million barrels of oil last year, so the BlackStar find…if it proves out…would be a hudge addition for Nebraska, but relatively small worldwide. Alaska’s North Shore oil deposits are estimated at 25-billion barrels and rank just 20th in the world.