The company said operator Victoria Petroleum has advised that the Kenai drill rig is currently being serviced following the completion of its most recent well, south of Los Angeles. It is due to arrive at the Eagle Oil Pool development project exploration well site soon and rig up to start operations in the next week.

Initially, the rig was scheduled to arrive by the end of November, but was delayed after extra time was needed at its prior drilling operations. Meanwhile, a report from Victoria Petroleum in late November predicted the well would spud in mid-to-late December.

The partners, which also include Australian companies First Australian Resources, Lakes Oil and Sun Resources, are hoping Eagle North-1 will be a case of third time lucky. Production at the Eagle prospect was twice halted – once in 1986 and again in 2001 – for different reasons.

Eagle North-1 is an up dip appraisal well on the Eagle Oil Pool stratigraphic trap discovered in 1986 by the Mary Bellocchi-1 well which targeted a small structural culmination on an unrecognised, extensive stratigraphic trap, Sun said.

The indicated potential recoverable reserves for the Eagle Oil Pool range from a mean of 13.5 million barrels of oil with 25 billion cubic feet of gas to the P10 case of 34 million barrels of oil with 58 billion cubic feet of gas.

In May 2004, a 14km seismic strike line was acquired to further define the updip extent of the Eagle Oil Pool and the Eagle North-1 appraisal well drilling location.

As a result of this new seismic data, the Eagle North-1 appraisal well will be drilled on the main stratigraphic trap updip and about 1,200 metres northwest of the 2001 Eagle-1 surface location to a total depth of 4,200 metres.

Drilling is expected to take about 14 days, according to Sun.

After logging and confirming oil is present in the target Gatchell Sandstone, the well will be cased and production tested for five days, the company said. Upon successful testing, the well will then be plugged back to drill a sidetrack horizontal lateral in the reservoir for a distance of 300 metres, which will then be completed for testing and ultimately long-term oil and gas production.

Economic completion of the well would trigger an immediate 129 sqkm 3D seismic survey for planning a further nine, 900-metre long insitu horizontal wells in the reservoir to drain the field over a 15-year production period.

It has been proposed to truck the produced crude to receiving facilities at Coalinga - about 20km west – and link gas production to gas pipelines nearby the Eagle Oil Pool development.

Participants in the Eagle Oil Pool Development Project and Eagle North-1 are: Empyrean Energy PLC (38.5%), Victoria Petroleum NL (20%), First Australian Resources NL (15%), Lakes Oil NL (15%), Sun Resources NL (10%) and US private interests (1.5%).