The news follows the disappointment of the Anson North-1 well, which Anadarko elected to drill in February. West Oil managing director Charlie Morgan said the joint venture had originally marketed the Anson West and Rossini prospects when Anadarko farmed in and as far as he was concerned 'those prospects are still alive".

He said they had applied to Government for a variation to the work program - now in 4th year - so they could incorporate the data from the unsuccessful well into their studies.

The participants in AC/P26 if Anadarko do not go ahead will be West Oil (50%), Indo-Pacific (50%) and Lonman (option to earn 1.25%).

In its other permits, the company said the operator of the Puffin discovery - Alberta Energy Company - had upgraded the potential of the Puffin-2 field from six million recoverable barrels to an as yet undisclosed but commercial sized accumulation. The well, in AC/P22, flowed 4,600 bopd when drilled in 1972.

Alberta Energy also said the Puffin-5 field had been downgraded from 20 million barrels to a subcommercial size.

West Oil disclosed in its report that on the back of the unsuccessful Sleeper and Sebring wells it was very unlikely that it would take up its option to respectively farm into permits AC/P27 and AC/P25 from Daytona Energy.

West Oil also said the Portrush prospect would possibly be drilled late 2002 if depth conversion interpretation over ZOCA 96-16 is correct and if resolution was reached with the East Timorese Government on the status of exploration permits in the zone.