Company CEO Ivan Burgess said the move doesn't mean a sale is definite, just that Norwest was considering the best interests of its shareholders and would wait for an appropriate offer before considering the sale.

Burgess could not be drawn on what an appropriate price would be for the 5% interest although based on Arc Energy's May sale of its 7.5% interest for around $10 million, prior to the field being declared commercial, Norwest may be looking for at least $7 million.

The provisional estimate for capital expenditure associated with the development of the Cliff Head Oil Field is around $140 million, although the partners have emphasised that this figure is going to be defined much more precisely through the FEED process.

Subject to satisfactory completion of FEED it is anticipated that a final investment decision for the project will be made during the second quarter of 2004 and that first oil will be produced from Cliff Head during the second half of 2005.

The WA-286-P Joint Venture comprises Roc Oil (WA) (operator) 37.5%, AWE Oil (Western Australia) 27.5%, Wandoo Petroleum 25%, Voyager Energy 5%, Westranch Holdings (a subsidiary of Norwest Energy NL) 5%.