Under the farm-in, Cosmo Energy will earn a 22.5% stake in the permit, by contributing towards the cost of the Wisteria-1 exploration well, due to spud in the third quarter of this year.

Last year, the partners farmed-out a 20% stake in the permit to Indian company Bharat Petroleum Corporation, which in return agreed to cover the costs of previous 3D seismic purchase, processing, interpretation and other works in the permit.

Other partners in the permit include privately owned Coogee Resources, as operator, and Australian-listed juniors Adelphi Energy and Bounty Oil & Gas.

Following the farm-out, Coogee and Cosmo will each hold a 22.5% stake in the block, BPC will have 20%, Norwest will have 15%, while Adelphi and Bounty will each own 10%.

The Cosmo Group already holds interests in several Timor Sea permits including the Tenacious and Audacious oil discoveries, about 50km north of AC-P32.

Norwest chief financial officer Peter Munachen said the partners had secured a rig for the Wisteria-1 well, which would be drilled later in the year as part of a multi-well drilling program operated by Coogee Resources.

"The terms of this farm-out deal reflect the quality and potential of the AC-P32 permit, in which the multi-objective Wisteria Prospect alone is targeting up to 200 million barrels of oil," he said.