The frontier explorer, which is hoping to raise $5.5 million through an initial public offer, today said it is targeting early oil production from acreage in an existing oil province in Clay County, northern Texas.

NT Oil acquired the acreage last year from global giant Chevron.

Chief executive Ian Whitchurch said the company would contract a local drill rig operator for an initial six-well program in the US as soon as the IPO’s minimum subscription of $3.5 million was secured.

“While the oil fields [in Clay County] produce at relatively low flow rates, the crude is sourced from shallow wells, which are very cost-effective to drill and develop and therefore, profitable at low flow rates,” Whitchurch said.

“Northern Territory’s six tenements are surrounded by existing oil producers and we are confident of making the discoveries that would generate cash flow within weeks of listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.”

Whitchurch said any production from the Clay County fields would be trucked to a major refinery 20km away at Wichita Falls.

The company’s major exploration play in Australia is the Georgina Basin in the Northern Territory, where it has two exploration permit applications totalling 30,000 square kilometres.

Whitchurch said the Georgina Basin’s prospectivity was confirmed by oil shows and gas flows from several previous wells, good quality reservoir rocks and geological similarities with the Tarin (China) and east Siberian (Russia) oil provinces.

NT Oil plans to use infra-red satellite imagery, water well analysis, magnetic data and geochemical ground surveys in the basin to define areas for seismic surveying and then drilling, over the next two years.

The company’s other major Australian interest is a farm-in to acquire a 25% stake in the Moriary Prospect held by Empire Oil in EP426 in the Perth Basin, Western Australia.

NT Oil’s IPO closes on October 23. It hopes to list on the ASX on November 3.