With the Tap Oil merger offer looming, Arc are keen to prove up Hovea as a significant oil find for the company. It has set 15th May as the latest possible deadline for the well.
Arc will be free carried through the well, which has a dry hole AFE (Authorised For Expenditure) cost of $1.5 million.
As for the design and location of the well, Arc said the completion of Production Test 2 and receipt of a migrated 3D volume over the Hovea structure were still in progress.
"It is intended at this time that the well will be fully cored through the reservoir section and will be deepened to test the full potential reservoir section including the Irwin River Coal Measure section," Arc said.