Amulet-1, which is 133km north-northeast of Dampier, is targeting a prospect with the potential to contain between 30 and 40 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves, the Perth-based company said.

The well site is also about 4km east of the Talisman Oil Field, which produced 7.7 million bbl of high quality oil between 1989 and 1992.

Lying in about 85m of water, Amulet-1 is designed to test a four-way dip closed structure along the north-eastern margin of the Dampier Sub-basin.

The Ensign 106 jack-up rig is expected to take 11 days to drill the well to total depth. It is expected to reach the target Lower Cretaceous sandstones at a depth of around 1930m.

Joint venture partners in Amulet-1 are Tap Oil and Kufpec Australia, which each hold a 50% interest.