Rawson Executive Chairman John Conolly said today that the capital raising satisfied the contractual farm-in requirements with Great Artesian Oil & Gas (GOG) and Beach Petroleum for Rawson to farmin to the western portion of PEL 107 in the Cooper Basin.

"This is around 30km from the Kiana-1 well where GOG this week has announced its first oil discovery," Conolly said.

"In addition, the successful IPO result triggers the go ahead with our farmin contract with GOG for ATP 552 in the Surat Basin in Queensland."

Under the terms of the ATP 552 farmin agreement, Rawson will fully fund the drilling of one exploration well within the permit at the Bellbird West Prospect, which will test the oil potential of both the Showgrounds sandstone and underlying Permian sandstone reservoirs.

Rawson will use under-balanced drilling techniques, similar to those successfully used recently by other Surat Basin explorers, in order to minimise the risk of reservoir damage. Bellbird West Prospect lies about two-km west of the Bellbird-1 well, which was drilled in 1984 and flowed about 12 barrels of oil per day from tight Permian reservoirs.

Located in the oil-prone portion of the Surat Basin, the ATP 552 well will be drilled within nine months of Rawson’s ASX listing.

The other farmin involves the PEL 107 joint venture, which requires Rawson to fully fund the drilling of up to three exploration wells on the ‘no discovery, no earn’ basis that Great Artesian favours. At least one well is to be drilled during the first quarter of 2006. As part of its prospect evaluation before drilling, Rawson will also fully fund and conduct a geochemical survey within the south-west corner of the PEL 107 permit.

If any of these wells result in a commercial discovery, Rawson will earn a 50% interest in any production licence except the PEL 107 exploration acreage. However, the farmin will lapse and Rawson will hold no residual interests if there are no commercial discoveries.

Earlier this week the PEL 107 joint venture announced an oil and gas discovery at their Kiana-1 well in the permit’s eastern portion.

Confirmation of the Rawson farmin follows announcements in the past few weeks of farmouts to Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited and Enterprise Energy NL.

PEL 107 joint venture partners are: Great Artesian (60%) and Beach Petroleum (40%).