Impress, via its wholly-owned subsidiary, Springfield Oil and Gas Ltd, decided to exercise its option to acquire a 4.6 per cent in PEP 38716 after encouraging results from the Makino-1 well, which is located some 12km south of Huinga.
The company said the Huinga prospect has many similarities to Makino and has been estimated to contain up to 46 million barrels of oil and 161 billion cubic feet of gas.
"Drilling in the sub thrust area is notoriously difficult however the rewards can be substantial when discoveries are made particularly in areas such as New Zealand, which is characterised by low operating costs and world parity pricing," the company said.
On the board of Impress Ventures are former Omega Oil executives, Mr Douglas Jendry and Mr Peter Andrews. Impress along with Yadarino and Pancontinental was involved in the drilling of Walyering-4 well in the Perth Basin. Despite being only 150m from the original discovery hole, the well turned out to be highly fractured and was subsequently plugged and abandoned.