It will also be the first well Red Sky Energy has participated in since listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in May.

Last week, the joint venture brought a new partner, Magellan Petroleum, into the prospect.

Farminees Red Sky Energy and Magellan have each agreed to pay 49% of the Rainbird-1 exploration well costs, in return for a 24.5% stake in any commercial discovery.

Stuart as operator will have a 36% stake, while Cooper Energy has the remaining 15%.

Before farming-in to PEL 93, Red Sky completed an airborne geochemical survey over the central and eastern areas of the permit, detecting oil and gas micro-seepage anomalies over the Rainbird structure.

Rainbird-1 is 8 km south-southwest of the Worrior oil field on a simple four-way dip closure.

With a total depth of 2010m, the well is targeting 6.4 million barrels of in-place oil and 4 billion cubic feet of gas, at the P10 level of confidence.

Primary targets are oil reservoirs in the McKinlay Member of the Murta Formation and the Birkhead Formation.

Secondary potential are gas reservoirs in the Patchawarra and Epsilon formations.