Wirraway-1 was originally due to spud in mid-December. But heavy rainfall in the region and the subsequent access issues has pushed back drilling until now.

In a statement yesterday, junior partner Impress Energy said the Hunt Rig 3 was currently rigging up and was expected to spud the wildcat well in the next few days.

The well, which is expected to take 16 days to reach a total depth of 1991m, is designed to test a large four-way dip closed structure on the western margin of the Cooper Basin.

Impress said the Wirraway prospect was a similar but larger structure to Growler and would be the second well to be spudded by the current joint venture, which comprises VicPet (40%), Impress Energy (40%) and Roma Petroleum (20%).

Wirraway-1 is located 4km northwest and updip of the Growler-1 discovery, which found a 15m oil column and recovered 35 barrels of oil during an open-hole drill stem test from the Birkhead Formation last September.

Located 15km west of Wirraway-1 lies the Santos-operated Callabonna oil discovery, which recovered 17bbl of oil in the Birkhead Formation back in 1990.

Impress said the Wirraway prospect had the potential to contain 7.6 million barrels of P50 recoverable reserves in the Birkhead, while other Jurassic reservoirs were also prospective.