The company is now cashed up with A$2.4 million in the bank to spend on exploration and development projects over the coming year.

It is also considering possible joint ventures with newly listed White Sands Petroleum and is continuing farmout discussions on its offshore Sydney Basin permit PEP 11 and New Zealand’s Great South Basin permit PEP 38215.

“Our strengths include cash in the bank, oil in the ground, a portfolio of projects and a new board motivated to add to this portfolio to grow the company,” Fontaine said.

Bounty and another Fontaine-linked company, drilling operator White Sands Petroleum, which listed at a premium on the ASX this month, were now considering future joint ventures.

“The current board of Bounty hopes to maintain a close relationship with White Sands as part of the growth strategy, as it appreciates the advantages of having access to a drilling rig, especially with the well documented rig shortage onshore,” Fontaine said.

Bounty owns one million ordinary shares in White Sands, in escrow for two years.

But last year, the Bounty-White Sands relationship was brought into a bitter battle between the previous board of directors and Fontaine.

A letter from the directors sent to shareholders in November said among other things, that under Fontaine, Bounty had lent more than A$1.5 million in two tranches to White Sands Petroleum. Bounty holds 25% of White Sands as a result of this assistance.

The letter also accused Fontaine of providing "confidential company material to another listed company". This company was believed to be Drillsearch, which is now a significant shareholder in Bounty.

Looking ahead to 2006, Bounty is also planning further development at the Utopia oil field. The company has a 40% interest in 2.86 million barrels of P50 recoverable oil reserves.

Meanwhile, under a prior farmin agreement, Empire Oil owes Bounty one well in onshore Carnarvon Basin permit EP 412.

The company says it is also currently evaluating 400km of new seismic in Tanzania to identify possible drilling locations.

Last week, Bounty suffered a blow at the high-risk, high-reward Magnolia-1 well in the Timor Sea. After issuing a placement of 12 million shares to raise A$960,000 for the project in December, the partners announced last week that Magnolia-1 would be plugged and abandoned after failing to find hydrocarbons.

This caused shares in Bounty, Norwest and Adelphi to plummet, with Bounty becoming the industry’s biggest loser on the ASX that week, closing 31.8% down for the week and 31% for the month.