Beginning next week with the spudding of Galilee-1 the company will maintain its focus on the same areas it has drilled in recent years - the Cooper / Eromanga Basins in far north South Australia and southwest Queensland.
An offshore well in northern Western Australia is also on the exploration program.
"One of the wells, Goolwa-1 in PEL 107, in the South Australian section of the Cooper Basin, is primarily targeting gas," said Beach CEO Reg Nelson.
"This well will be an important step for Beach in a longer term program to discover significant volumes of stratigraphically trapped gas on the western flank of the Patchawarra Trough."
"The remainder of the 2004 exploration program is focused on adding to Beach's commercial oil volumes through drilling petroleum acreage offering rapid tie-in to nearby production facilities, from any discovery, during the current strong oil price environment."
The 2004 drilling schedule encompasses a minimum seven wildcat exploration wells with allowance for an eighth; three appraisal wells near Beach's successful Christies and Sellicks oil fields in South Australia; and two appraisal wells at its 100%-owned Kenmore and Bodalla blocks in southwest Queensland.
The major activity will be centred on PEL 92, 115 kilometres west of Moomba where the company plans four to five wells after discovering commercial oil reserves in PEL 92 with the Sellicks-1 and Christies-1 wells in the past two drilling programs.
"Our earlier exploration has clearly revealed strong potential upside in the western flank of the Basin," Nelson said.
"With two fields already in production from the PEL 92 discoveries, it is logical to focus our key oil exploration endeavours in this sector," he said.
"Beach also has a 75% interest in the tenement so any additions to existing fields in PEL 92 will be significant contributors to our total Cooper Basin production and revenues."
Nelson said South Australia's likely oil and gas shortage from 2006 provided a strong incentive to the independents to further develop the smaller but commercial opportunities continuing to present in the Cooper Basin.
"Some of this expected energy shortfall in South Australia will be able to be met by successfully targeting low risk 1-2 million barrel oil fields, with good probability for 5-10 million barrel targets or better.
