Vicpet Spuds Wirraway-1 in Cooper Basin

Victoria Petroleum N.L.

Victoria Petroleum N.L. as Operator for the PEL 104 Joint Venture, said that Wirraway-1 commenced drilling at 6 p.m. Central Standard Time, Wednesday in PEL 104 on the western margin of the South Australian Cooper Basin. At 6 a.m. CST Thursday, the operation was drilling ahead in 12-1/4 inch hole at 81 meters.

Wirraway-1 will be the first well drilled by the PEL 104 Joint Venture in this under-explored Jurassic area of the permit, which covers the western flank of the productive Patchawarra Trough of the Cooper Basin in 2007.

Wirraway-1 is located 5 kilometers west of the PEL 104 Growler-1 oil discovery, which recovered oil from the Jurassic Basal Birkhead sands on drill stem test.

The Wirraway Prospect is located in an analogous geological position with respect to the Permian source kitchen, which provided the oil for the August 2006 Callawonga Jurassic oil discovery of 2,400 barrels of oil per day some 40 kilometers to the south operated by Beach Petroleum. The Wirraway-1 well is targeting the seismically defined four-way dip closed Growler structure interpreted to have the potential to contain a combined recoverable oil target of up to 13 million barrels of oil in multiple reservoirs, if oil is present.

The principal objectives of the well are the Basal Birkhead, Hutton and Poolawanna Sandstones over the interval 1,700 meters to 2,000 meters.

Victoria Petroleum's Managing Director, John Kopcheff, said:

"Victoria Petroleum is pleased to be drilling Wirraway-1, the next well to be drilled by the PEL 104 Joint Venture in the western part of PEL 104 in 2007 to follow up the September 2006 oil recovery from the basal Birkhead sand in Growler-1, 5 kms to the east.

"Exploration success at Wirraway-1 would further confirm our belief that a new oil production province in the western part of PEL 104 and our adjoining PEL111 permit could be present.

"Also in PEL 104 we have three prospects in the vicinity of the Wirraway Prospect, such as the Tigershark and Warhawk prospects and a further nine similar prospects including Ascender, Gannet, and Liberator in the immediately adjacent PEL 111 permit to the north.

"Wirraway-1 is also an important well for Vicpet as it is the first well in the 2007 eleven well exploration drilling program to take place over the next six months in Vicpet's South Australian and Queensland Cooper Basin Permits.

"Given the current industry exploration success rate of 45% in the Cooper Basin, Vicpet would expect to enjoy some degree of exploration success in the eleven-well drilling program."

The participants in the drilling of Growler-1 and PEL 104 and their respective interests through their wholly owned subsidiaries are as follows:

  • Victoria Petroleum N.L. (Operator) 40%
  • Impress Energy Limited 40%
  • Roma Petroleum N.L. 20%

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