Located in the Exmouth Sub-Basin of the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia Stickle-1 encountered an 88-foot oil column in the Pyrenees member of the Cretaceous-age Barrow group. The oil pay was confirmed by logs, pressure readings and wireline oil recovery.

The well is in 640 feet of water, about 28 miles north of Exmouth, off the Western Australian coast, three miles east of the Ravensworth oil discovery and 1.7 miles east of the Crosby discovery, both of which were drilled last year.

"With the added success of the Stickle-1 to our two discoveries last year, the area has become a significant part of our future plans to grow Australia," said Apache CEO and president G. Steven Farris.

"We intend to drill a fourth exploration well, Harrison-1, along with appraisal wells around Ravensworth, Crosby and Stickle during the remainder of the quarter."

The Crosby-1 well intersected a 112-foot oil column in the Pyrenees member of the Cretaceous-age Barrow Group, while the JV found a 43 metre net hydrocarbon column in the Ravensworth well in WA-155P.

Apache owns a 28.57% working interest in the discovery with BHP Billiton acting as operator with a 71.43% working interest.