Located in Western Australia’s Exmouth Basin, Ravensworth-2 targetted the Pyrenees member of the Cretaceous-age Barrow group in 207m of water. Both companies will forego the expense of testing the Ravensworth-2, as reservoir characteristics of the Barrow group are well known in the area and full cores have been recovered from this well.

"The top of the Pyrenees member in Ravensworth-2 was 15m higher than we expected, while the oil-water contact in this well is at the same depth encountered in the discovery," said Eve Howell, Apache's regional vice president for Australia. "That's good news, because it extends the area of the field considerably farther north than we had it mapped based on the Ravensworth-1 discovery well."

Plans for the Exmouth Basin include an appraisal of last May's Stickle discovery during the third quarter with further exploration and appraisal drilling contemplated later in the year.

Apache has a 28.57% interest in Ravensworth-2 with BHP Billiton, the operator, holding the remaining 71.43% interest.

Apache also said that as part of the Harriet Joint Venture it has commenced production from the recently discovered Monet field near Varanus Island at a rate of 10,500 barrels of oil per day from a 150m horizontal production interval within the Flag sandstone.

The Monet-2H well was drilled from the Simpson Bravo platform to a location 3km northeast of the platform. The well was placed on production just two months after the Monet-1 discovery, which intersected 17m of net oil pay within a four-way, dip-closed Flag sandstone structure. As Monet-1 was determined to have penetrated the crest of the structure, it served as the pilot hole for Monet-2H.

Monet is owned by the Harriet Joint Venture of which Apache, the operator, holds a 68.5% working interest, while partners Kufpec and Tap Oil own 19.3% and 12.2% respectively.