Roc Oil (WA) Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary
of ROC, is pleased to announce the commencement of a two well
exploration/appraisal drilling programme in WA-286-P, in the North Perth
Basin, offshore Western Australia.
At 0100 hours (local time) on 3 February 2008, the
Premium "WilCraft" jack-up
drilling rig commenced drilling the Lilac-1 exploration well, in 33 metres of water
approximately 2.5
kilometres east of the Dunsborough-1 oil and gas
discovery made in the permit in June 2007.
Lilac-1 is expected to reach a Total Depth of
approximately 1,435 mBRT in mid-February, 2008.
As of 0600 (local time) on 4 February 2008 the
current operation was preparing to run 13-3/8" casing.
Following the drilling of Lilac-1, an appraisal
well, Frankland-2, also in WA-286-P, will be drilled. The two well drilling
programme is expected to be completed by the end of February 2008.
Commenting on the commencement of the drilling
programme, Dr John Doran, ROC's Chief Executive
Officer, stated that:
"These next two wells in the offshore Perth Basin will go a long way towards
determining the near term potential for a new field development in the
region. Therefore, although we can't predict whether or not the wells will be
successful we can definitely say that they will be interesting!"
Participating
Interests in the WA-286-P joint venture are:
Roc
Oil (WA) Pty
Ltd............................................................... 37.5%.
AWE
Oil (Western Australia)
Pty Ltd...................................... 27.5%
ARC (Offshore PB) Limited.....................................................
30.0%
CIECO Exploration and Production (Australia) Pty Ltd......... 5.0%