The effort came off the back of the company's American assets, especially the offshore Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico assets operated by Petsec

Petsec, with a 75% working interest, drilled the West Cameron 343 #A-17 and #A-18 wells in October/November, 2002, discovering gas in three sands and four sands respectively.

Brought into production in January from the West Cameron 352 'A' platform, located on the adjoining lease, Petsec's net production in the March quarter from these wells and the #A-13 well on West Cameron 352 was 1.4bcf (billion cubic feet) of gas.

The deepest sands in both the #A-17 and #A-18 wells were fully produced in mid-April. The next higher sands were completed for production and brought on stream in May at a combined rate of 16mmcf of gas per day.

Petsec's net production for the half-year to June for the three wells was 2.2bcf of gas and the company is now planning to drill two new wells from the "A" platform in early August.

The West Cameron 352 #A-14 and #A-15 wells will be designed to test two prospects with an estimated total gross unrisked mapped potential of 10 to 16bcf of gas.

In a boost for future production Petsec acquired the Vermilion 246 and 257 leases offshore Louisiana. The leases adjoin, to the East, Vermilion 258 which was acquired by Petsec in November, 2000 for $US2.7 million.

The company will be drilling two wells on Vermillion 258 in December, testing two prospects with a gross unrisked mapped potential of 33bcf of gas.

In 2002 Petsec earned a 25% interest in Block 22/12 in the Chinese Beibu Gulf by participating in drilling the Wei 6-12-1 well, which discovered nine metres of net oil pay.

To better define these five oil discoveries, as well as the remaining exploration potential, the joint venture completed a 3-D seismic survey over the entire block in September of 2002.

Seismic interpretation, combined with engineering studies indicate that two or more of the fields could be economically developed by using low cost engineering techniques commonly used in the Gulf of Mexico.

Independent estimates for the field show a P50 (proved and probable) case of 50.3 million bbls of recoverable oil.

The joint venture has now approved a program of two firm wells and two contingent wells to test the 12-7 prospect and to appraise the 12-8-2 oil field, beginning later this year.