Drilling is expected to take 18 days to reach a total depth of 2127 metres, Innamincka said.

Avery will fund part of the well costs to earn a 25% interest in the Aspen farmout block, a 55 square kilometre area in the south-eastern part of PEL 103 and about 8km northeast of the Cummin-1 drilled in 2004.

Containing a potential 17 million barrels of in-place oil, the Aspen Prospect’s primary targets include the Hutton Sandstone, Poolowanna Formation and sandstone units within the Triassic section.

“Fair to excellent reservoir properties - porosity and permeability - are expected to prevail in these sandstones,” Innamincka said.

“[But] effective hydrocarbon charge is considered the main risk.”

The Aspen prospect is an anticlinal structure on the broad Innamincka High - the largest structural culmination in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins, the company said.

Cummin-1 was the third well drilled on the Innamincka High to explore for a crestal hydrocarbon accumulation. Very encouraging oil shows were reported throughout the Eromanga section in addition to a small oil discovery, Innamincka said.

The first two wells – Innamincka-3 and 4 drilled in the early 1980s - also had encouraging oil shows, but failed to intersect an economic oil accumulation.

Avery Resources (Australia) Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of Avery Resources Inc, an international oil and gas exploration company based in Calgary, Alberta that trades on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Post farmin, the joint venture participants in the Aspen Block are: Vernon E Faulconer Australia Inc (48.75%); Innamincka Petroleum Limited (operator and 26.25%); and Avery Resources (Australia) Pty Ltd (25%).