Tap managing director Paul Underwood yesterday said the ASX-listed company was in fine shape.

It had no debt, cash reserves of A$75 million and June quarterly revenues were up 15% on the previous quarter and 44% higher than the corresponding quarter last year.

The Woollybutt field (Tap 15%) continued to perform well, with over 20 million barrels of oil produced and the Scalybutt-1H Development well expected to be tied-in by November. The Woollybutt-5 appraisal well and Yarri-1 exploration well were also planned for about the same time.

In the Harriet Joint Venture Permit TL/6, the Mohave oil discovery had this week started producing about 10,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and North Alkimos was now producing around 1,400 bopd.

Harriet Joint Venture (HJV) liquids production averaged 10,426 bopd for the quarter and was presently around 19,100 bopd. Tap is a 12.2229% in Harriet.

But the HJV had now plugged and abandoned Stuart-1. The well had intersected good reservoir sandstones at the top of the targeted Flag Sandstone but found no hydrocarbons. The reasons for this were uncertain as Stuart-1 had a similar geological setting to the successful Mohave-1 well, according to Tap.

The next wells in the HJV drilling program would be Jane-2, to be drilled with by the Ensco Rig 56 in mid-August, and Lansdowne-1, to be drilled with by Ensco Rig 67 in late August.

The successful drilling and completion of the Rose-1 and North Alkimos-2H development wells had set new records for deviated well depths (6.3km) in the Harriet Area. This augured well for future long-range exploration-development wells from existing platforms for rapid tie-in of additional production, according to Tap.

Wells scheduled for the third quarter included up to four more HJV wells (each with the potential to hold up to four million barrels of oil), and three onshore Taranaki, New Zealand wells - Supplejack-1 (PEP 38741) (1 million boe), Takahe-1 (PEP 38744) (4 million boe) and Richmond-1 (PEP 38745) (1 million boe).

Wells scheduled for the fourth quarter included another three or four HJV wells (5-10 million boe) and the potentially large Marley-1 (1.5 tcf gas + condensate); Hestia-1 and Gats-1 (WA 261P) (20 and 30 million boe respectively); Woollybutt JV wells Woollybutt-5 and Yarri-1 (15–20 million boe); Jacala-1 (WA 351P) (1 billion boe); and Kultarr-1 (WA-334P) (15 million boe).

Planning was also underway for the 2006 drilling program, which included offshore South Island, New Zealand targets in PEP 38259 that could hold up to 6 tcf of gas and 80 million barrels of oil.

"A decision will be made as to whether the JV drills the Barque-1 or the Cutter-1 well in the PEP 38259 program due to the availability of deep water drilling equipment, JV approvals and permitting processes," Underwood said.