Drilling Commences at Kingtree Well in Timor Sea

Bengal advised that the Kingtree exploration well commenced drilling operations on October 14, 2011. The well will evaluate a large, shallow structure, defined on the basis of multiple 3D and 2D seismic data, on offshore Permit AC/P 24 in the Vulcan Sub-basin of the Timor Sea off the northwest coast of Australia. Bengal holds a 10% working interest in the prospect and Permit AC/P 24.

The drilling location lies on trend with the Challis-Cassini oil field, approximately 300 kilometers offshore in a water depth of approximately 110 meters. The pool analogy for the Kingtree prospect is the nearby Jabiru oil field (115 MM bbls cumulative oil to date). This drilling location sits separately, approximately 12 kilometers east of Bengal's original Katandra oil discovery.

The well will be drilled by the semisubmersible rig Ocean Patriot and is planned to be drilled to a total depth of 1,472 meters over a period of approximately 17 days and abandoned after logging and evaluation. The purpose of the well is to help delineate the extent of the potential hydrocarbon deposits in the area and if successful will provide valuable information in determining the total amount of hydrocarbons in place and the scale of the subsequent development drilling and production infrastructure plan.