Drilling had been indefinitely postponed with high winds of 35 knots plus and a three metre swell delaying the arrival of the Ensco-56 rig from the recently P&A Nickol-1 well.

Sun Resources (7.5%) managing director Dr Brad Farrell, said the area is one of a number of significant, high impact volume prospects, delineated by quality 3D seismic coverage over the south-eastern portion of the permit area.

"The potential of Kilauea ranges from a mean case of 419 billion cubic feet of gas with a possible oil leg of 10 million barrels of oil, to a P10 case of 938 billion cubic feet of gas with a possible oil leg of 26 million barrel of oil," Dr Farrell said.

"Also the proximity to the existing and planned production infrastructure at the Harriet field will facilitate the speedy development of a discovery."

Kilauea is a similar North Rankin - Mungaroo Formation buttress trap located in the same fault block as the on trend Corvus gas discovery in eastern adjacent WA-246-P.

Participants in Kilauea 1 are Sun Resources (7.5%), Apache (operator - 40.25%), Wandoo (22.25%) and Kupfec 30.00%.