The three-well drilling program, located offshore the Texan Gulf Coast, is expected to finish at the end of July.

Like the initial campaign, any commercial discovery from the three new wells – Donna Carlota-1, Agavero-1 and Climaco-1 – will be brought online quickly, as the project area is intersected by a number of gas pipelines.

The Donna Carlota Prospect is one of the three prospects that are analogues of historic prolific Frio and Vicksburg sands production in the project area at depths of less than 2000 metres.

Donna Carlota-1 is targeting 800 million cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves, while Agavero-1 is aiming for 700 MMcf. Climaco-1 has the biggest target, with 1.6 Bcf.

The campaign is a precursor to a higher impact program targeting 30-200Bcf of gas in the second half of this year.

Interests in the Margarita project are Empyrean Energy (44%), Victoria Petroleum and Sun Resources each with 20% and Wandoo Energy with 16%.