Springfield will contribute 25% of the initial work program on permit PEL104 to earn a 12.5 % interest in the permit, at an estimated cost of $4.2 million.

Impress considers the permit is highly prospective for both gas and oil in both the Permian and Jurassic sequences which are highly productive elsewhere in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin.

The program will initially reprocess 1350km of existing seismic data, record 150km of seismic and drill two wells over a 12-to-15 month period.

PEL 104 covers 1,069 square kilometres and is located adjacent to the Tirrawarra oil field, which holds estimated reserves of 70 million barrels of oil and 340 billion cubic feet of gas.

Architect of the program Ron Prefontaine has put his 20% stake in the permit on the market in order to avoid any conflict of interest due to his directorship of Arrow Energy.

Eddie Smith, director of Australian Worldwide Exploration and Kalrez Energy, has also been appointed as a non-executive director of Impress.

Impress has also released a substantial holding in Mbox by offering 8,500,000 shares at 6.1c per share, over a third of its assets in the company, raising proceeds of $518,000.