First up however is the Ceres-1 well in WA-261P. This permit lies directly south of the permit which contains the 20,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) Stag oilfield and operator Apache Energy believes the concept of a large Stag Sand pinch out trap, south of the Stag oilfield continues to remain a valid target.

Potential gross reserves for the Ceres well have been calculated as ranging from 14 million barrels of recoverable oil to 23 million barrels of oil. If the prospect is proved, the potential could be much greater (up to 80 million barrels of oil recoverable) because of the stratigraphic nature of the trap.

Also in the Carnarvon Basin is WA-254P (Sun 9%) which hosts the Sage, Argos and Collier prospects. Argos lies only 10 kilometres from Woodside's Legendre oilfield which produces 40,000 bopd. The joint venture will decide this month whether to drill Argos in December this year. The Sage-1 well flowed 2150 bopd in 1999 and the data is being reprocessed in order to determine a follow up drilling program.

Also being factored into drilling is the Boyd prospect in EP-395 (Sun 10%). Boyd-1 had encouraging oil shows and with the acquisition of 3D seismic it is thought it is similar in nature to the Tubridgi Gasfield in the onshore Carnarvon Basin to the southwest. A gas cap to a 30 to 40 million barrel oil prospect is prognosticated.

An investment that Sun made some time ago is well and truly paying off. Sun's stake in Murray Basin-focussed minerals sands explorer, Basin Minerals, is now worth in excess of $7 million, a fine result from initial seed capital of less than $1 million. Sun managing director Brad Farrell said this investment would alleviate needing to dilute shareholders in further capital raisings. Sun recently tipped $1 million into their cash reserves by selling a small portion of their Basin Minerals stake. It still holds 14% of that company which is planned to commence production in late 2003 at a rate of 300,000 to 350,000 tonnes per annum of mineral product

The other development which has attracted some interest is their 20% stake in coal bed methane (CBM) permits in Wollongong - PEL 442 and Coal Concession Lease CCL 745. Together with operator Apex Energy they plan to drain the very gassy Wongawilli coals - already releasing methane into the longwalls being mined into the overlying Bulli coal seams - by drilling horizontal drainage wells into the Wongawilli. Sun estimates the gas potential for the overall project is 300 billion cubic feet of gas.