Interestingly enough, it seems to have taken the extended run of success by a swag of Cooper Basin juniors picking over old Santos ground to sting the SA monolith into action in its own backyard.

Speaking at a PESA symposium in Adelaide today, Santos' exploration manager central business unit, John Chambers, said that after a 17 year period of decline, Cooper Basin oil production was expected to be stable in 2004 and then to grow from 2005.

The problem with this strategy is it does little to grow Santos' reserves, simply replace them. It is doubted whether Cooper Basin prospects are of enough size to sustain growth of the billion dollar company.

Chambers said the improving outlook reflected Santos' new strategy of more efficient use of its existing large infrastructure footprint in the Cooper Basin, combined with new technologies and production optimisation initiatives over the "old fields".

The recently discovered Reg Sprigg oil field will be one of the contributors to stronger oil production following the recent success of the Reg Sprigg-3 appraisal well drilled this month.

"Reg Sprigg-3 is another example of the numerous bread-and-butter oil and gas fields available to Santos throughout the Cooper Basin," Chambers said.

"This well flowed oil at nearly 3,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from two separate zones and gas at nine million standard cubic feet per day," he said.

Chambers said the Reg Sprigg-3 discovery has implications for Santos' exploration acreage in South West Queensland and will be followed-up with a 3D seismic survey.

Other oil successes in 2003 included the Pelican-11 and Merrimelia-43 oil delineation wells drilled in August and October, which came on at initial rates of 4,600 and 5,680 bopd respectively.

Both these wells identified new oil pools in areas outside of previously mapped accumulations. Merrimelia-43 has produced in excess of 250,000 barrels since December.

Chambers also told delegates at the symposium that not only was Santos recovering more oil from the Basin but was also achieving it at a lower cost.

The cost of drilling, completing and connecting each oil well has been reduced by $500,000 in the JALBU project, while average drill times have been reduced from 9.2 days to 7.4 days per well.

Santos will also continue to work closely with joint venture partners and new Cooper Basin independents, to maximise economic production for all producers in the province.

"Santos' transport and processing facilities can play an important role in the future export of Cooper Basin product from existing or new reservoirs," he said.

Chambers added that Santos as operator of the Cooper Basin joint venture, was using a two-pronged approach to increase overall oil production.

The first approach was to increase production from existing fields through infill drilling and secondary oil recovery techniques such as water-floods within existing fields.

The second strategy was to focus on new opportunities now possible with better seismic definition. This included detailed reprocessing of 3D seismic surveys, sequential stratigraphic interpretation and more cost-effective 'fit-for purpose' drilling rigs, to extract more oil from the Basin.