Victoria Petroleum Kicks Off 2006 Cooper Basin Exploration Program

Victoria Petroleum N.L. ("Victoria Petroleum") has been advised by the operator Cooper Energy Limited that at 0600 hours CST today, the current operation was drilling ahead in 8 ½ inch hole at 1,027 metres.

Geordie-1 is located in PEL 88 in the far north eastern corner of South Australia where Victoria Petroleum holds a 10% interest.

Geordie-1 will be the first exploration well in Victoria Petroleum’s planned 8 well 2006 Cooper Basin exploration drilling program.

Geordie-1 is programmed to be drilled to a Total Depth (TD) of 2,600 metres and is planned to take approximately 20 days to drill from the start of drilling.

The Geordie Prospect is a fault closed structure that also has a robust seismically mapped four way dip closed component with two crests. Geordie-1 will test the southern crest of the structure.

The prospect includes three reservoir horizons- the, Hutton, Poolawanna and Triassic Tinchoo at respective depths of approximately 1,979 metres, 2,126 metres and 2,247 metres.

The Geordie Prospect was defined by seismic mapping conducted during 2004. Potential reserves for the four way dip closure range from 1.4 million up to 11.2 million barrels of recoverable oil with a mean of 7.5 million barrels, if oil is present.

The nearest oilfield, the Cook Oil Field is located approximately 30 kilometres to the east of Geordie-1 and adjacent to Victoria Petroleum’s Queensland permit ATP 752P. The Cook Oil Field Field produced oil from the Jurassic aged Hutton Sandstone at a rate of 879 barrels of oil per day.

The James Oil Field which is located 23 kilometres to the south of the Geordie-1 location flowed oil from the Tinchoo reservoirs of Upper Triassic age at a rate of 1,810 barrels of oil per day.

These oil flows along with the shows in other nearby wells demonstrate the potential that could exist for oil to occur in several reservoirs at the Geordie-1 location.

Commenting on the start of drilling at Geordie-1, John Kopcheff, Managing Director for Victoria Petroleum N.L. said: "Vicpet is pleased to be kicking off its 8 well 2006 exploration program in the South Australian Cooper Basin with the potentially high reward, but not without risk Geordie-1 exploration well."

"An oil discovery at Geordie-1 would further confirm our belief in the known oil producing potential of the northern part of the Cooper Basin, where Victoria Petroleum is the largest acreage holder."

Participants in the drilling of Geordie-1 and their respective interests are;

• Victoria Petroleum N.L. 10%
• Sundance Energy Australia Ltd 45%
• Cooper Energy Limited (Operator) 30%
• Enterprise Energy N.L. 10%
• Liberty Petroleum Corporation 5%

Victoria Petroleum N.L. has a 10% interest in the Geordie-1 well and PEL 88 through its wholly owned subsidiary, Victoria Oil Exploration (1977) Pty Ltd.