The company plans to drill up to 16 new wells in the area at a cost of around $25 million in order to increase near term oil production, but is playing its cards close to its chest on the nature of the technology it plans to unleash.

The Cooper Basin wells and the advanced technology are part of an extended exploration campaign that will take advantage of the company's massive accumulation of exploration acreage.

The portfolio is the result of acreage awards in the offshore Otway, Sorell, Duntroon, Browse and Houtman Basins, which it says gives Santos more exploration acreage in Australia than any other company.

It will also participate in infill drilling in the Legendre oil field in the Carnarvon Basin and possible development with its joint venture partner Woodside on the Jahal and Kuda Tasi wells in the Timor Sea.

Development of the Mutineer Exeter field has also progressed with the selection of a floating production and offloading facility concept for the fields.

"In order to progress the development as efficiently as possible four major internationally recognised contractors have been pre-qualified and a technical definition phase has commenced," managing director John Ellice-Flint told investors.

Ellice-Flint was understandably buoyant at the AGM after reporting to the investors that in 2002 the company had achieved record production rates and sales, commercialised 620 petajoules of gas and discovered resource potential of 106 million barrels of oil equivalent through exploration and replaced 119% of reserves.