“It’s not a terribly big project but we have 30% of it and we’ve only got 5% at Jingemia, and the two stakes add up to about the same volume of oil,” Lane told ERN.

“We’ve also got good prospects in the Cooper Basin. Everyone else is finding oil there and we expect we will too.”

At Rookwood, the operator and senior partner, Oilex, is planning to drill four appraisal wells back-to-back at 400 metre spacings commencing 16 November 2004. The wells are named Rookwood East-1, Rookwood West-1, Rookwood Central-1 and Rookwood South Central-1.

The partners are excited about the prospects this field offers.

The initial discovery at Rookwood South-1 should deliver a production rate of about 300 barrels of oil per day, according to the partners, and Oilex has said it has identified 20 more leads and prospects between Rookwood and the northern boundary of the ATP 608P permit. It predicted there would be at least another 20 between Rookwood and the southern boundary.

“The Rookwood oil discovery is very exciting to us as it proves up a new exploration play within the permit,” said Victoria Petroleum managing director John Kopcheff.

“This new play also extends over the permit and provides us with an extensive trend to explore and drill.”

Production testing of Rookwood South-1 oil discovery has now begun. Construction work to complete the facility and bring it into production should be completed by the end of this week, according to Oilex.

Interests in the Rookwood development are: Oilex NL 59.06%, Victoria Petroleum NL 29.69%, private Interests 11.25%.

Meanwhile Victoria Petroleum has been keeping busy in the South Australian Cooper Basin.

It has just acquired a 15% interest in PEL 94 from Black Rock. The northern border of this lease is just 6km south of the Harpoono oil discovery in PEL 113 which has been producing up to 190 barrels a day.

Victoria Petroleum will pay 50% of the cost of the recently acquired Malleus seismic survey, or $182,000, Kopcheff said.

“Following the acquisition of further seismic we would anticipate drilling taking place on Harpoono-type prospects in the northern part of PEL 94 in 2005,” he said.

“As well as adding further exploration drilling targets to our current inventory of some 50 leads and prospects in our other South Australian Cooper basin permits, acquisition of the PEL 94 interest maintains our position as the largest gross and net acreage holder in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin.

“Victoria Petroleum now has an average 40% interest in 13 permits covering an area of 53,010 square kilometres.”

Interests in PEL 94 are Beach Petroleum (operator) 50%, Magellan 35% and Victoria Petroleum 15%.

Elsewhere in the South Australian Cooper Basin, the company is now also preparing to drill the Canberra-1A well in PEL 115. This will test the Canberra Prospect, which is determined to have the potential to contain up to 161 billion cubic feet of gas and four million barrels of oil – if oil and gas are present.

“This is a high-risk, high-reward prospect,” Lane said.

“There is no guarantee of success but if it works as expected, it will be a very good find.”

The Canberra-1 well became unstable and the rig has been relocated 85m away. Canberra-1A is planned to drill to drill to a total depth of 2430 metres and to take 25 days to complete. It is expected to spud on Saturday 6 November.

Interests in PEL 115 are Victoria Petroleum (operator) 40%, Roma Petroleum 20%, Impress Ventures 15%, Entek Energy 12.5% and Tacnas Pty Ltd 12.5%.