The discovery is located around 27 miles offshore in 646 feet of water about 1-1/4 miles east of Apache's Ravensworth oil discovery.

"Crosby gives us further confidence that we have opened a new oil play for Apache south of our existing Carnarvon Basin operations; moreover, it is potentially larger than Ravensworth as additional oil columns may exist updip with no gas cap encountered in the Crosby wellbore," said Apache president and CEO Steven Farris.

Farris said appraisals of both discoveries along with additional exploration drilling would be undertaken early next year. To conserve costs, the Crosby discovery will not be tested, as the reservoir characteristics of the Barrow group are well-known in the area.

For BHPB, Crosby-1 is the second significant find in the second half of 2003 after its massive 1,200 foot gross hydrocarbon column, with more than 500 feet (total vertical thickness) of net oil pay, at the Neptune-5 well in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The well logs at Neptune-5 indicate thick sands and are amongst the most impressive we've seen in the Gulf of Mexico," said Philip Aiken, president and CEO for BHP Billiton Petroleum.

Apache also reported that its Van Gogh-1 appraisal well for the Vincent field, which extends onto Apache acreage in the Exmouth Sub-Basin about 9 miles north of Ravensworth, had encountered an oil column in the Cretaceous- age Barrow Group.

An additional well will be required to further define the reservoir geometry, its extent, and the total height of the oil column. Apache holds a 31.5% working interest in the well. BHPB is the operator with a 40% interest and Imprex holds the remaining interest.

Apache has a 28.57% working interest in Crosby-1 well. BHPB Petroleum is the operator with the remaining interest.