Bow said it had a rig-sharing agreement with Beach Petroleum in ATP 794P, which would enable it to carry out its planned 2006-07 Eromanga Basin exploration drilling program.

Company secretary Duncan Cornish said rig-sharing would give Bow more flexibility on timing and substantially reduce mobilisation costs, with the company having options to obtain up to six drilling slots this year and in early 2007.

Beach’s latest timetable indicated the Hunt Rig 2 would be available to spud the planned Banff-1 well in late July. Banff-1 is a 1650m deep test of a large four-way dip closure with the potential to contain up to 34 million barrels of recoverable oil. The leads and prospects identified to date on the Banff structural trend had a combined recoverable oil potential of 95 million bbl.

Bow would become operator and earn a 25% direct working interest in the 6578 square kilometre Barcoo Block by funding 60% of the costs of Banff-1.

Interests in the ATP 794P Barcoo Block would then be Bow (operator with a 25% stake), Oilex (40%) and Victoria Petroleum (35%).

Additional drilling was planned for the ATP 752P Barta and Wompi blocks where, as part of a farm-in program by Avery Resources, Bow was being fully carried on the exploration program of up to five wells. Bow would retain a 25-35% direct working interest, depending on which stage the farm-in was completed.

Ongoing prospect generation and seismic reprocessing work in the Wompi Block had so far confirmed in excess of 30 leads and prospects near oil fields in adjacent leases that had high initial oil flow rates.

Cornish said given the high prospectivity of the area, the Wompi Block joint venture had added another optional well in this block and now planned to drill two firm wells, with two optional wells, with the first three wells to be funded by Avery and the fourth to be an ATP 752P JV-funded well.

The latest Beach drilling schedule showed the first two firm Wompi wells were planned to start this September. An offer of grant of ATP 752P was expected shortly following the execution of native title agreements earlier this year.

In the Barta Block of ATP 752P, a detailed seismic acquisition infill program would commence before selecting the exploration drilling locations. One well and an optional well are planned in the block early in 2007 as part of the Avery farm-in.

Bow would also become operator of the ATP 752P wells.

Interests in ATP 752P would be: Stage 1 (after an Avery earning program of three wells and 100km of seismic) Bow Energy (operator, 35%), Avery Resources (Australia) (30%) and Victoria Petroleum (35%); Stage 2 (after an additional two-well Avery earning program) Bow (operator, 25%), Avery (50%) and VicPet (25%).

Cornish also said Bow intended to drill or participate in the drilling of up to three exploration wells within its western Surat holdings during 2006-07, with timing conditional on prospect generation and successful farm-outs of its 100%-owned areas.

To date, Bow has defined several potential drilling targets in its Surat Basin tenements and has started a seismic reprocessing program over selected future drilling prospects, as well as starting farm-out negotiations with interested parties.

An infill seismic program is also being considered, with drilling in the currently planned to start in the last quarter of 2006.