Mosaic said the well was spudded yesterday afternoon.

The company said it expected to take 20 days to drill to a total depth of 3280m and to evaluate the oil potential in the primary reservoir target.

Located in the eastern part of the permit, the Hurricane prospect is a large fan play with the potential to contain 40-50 million barrels of recoverable oil.

The well is a follow-up to the Hurricane-1 gas discovery, which in 2005 intersected a 76m gross gas column on rock with no gas-water or gas-oil contact identified.

Supporting pressure and gas/condensate compositional data indicate the likelihood of an underlying oil leg, Mosaic said.

After finishing with Hurricane-2, the Premium Wilcraft rig will move further north to the Bonaparte Gulf, where it will drill the Marina-1 well for Drillsearch Energy and Esso Australia in mid-September.

The participants in the WA-208-P JV are: Apache Energy (34.03%), Santos (31.31% - operator), Eni Australia (18.66%), Beach Petroleum (10%) and Mosaic Oil (6%).