Spudded on Monday, the well is targeting 500-600 million cubic feet of gross gas resources to a total depth of 2073 feet.

The well is targeting a deeper formation than the previous three recent Texon discoveries.

Texon, which has a 96.67% working interest in the well, said initial flow rates from nearby wells have been 850,000 cubic feet per day and 1.5 million cubic feet per day.

After Avoca is drilled, Texon's 2008 campaign will stop for between four and six weeks, after which two more wells are planned for drilling.

These wells are most likely to be Duranbah-1, which has a 3-4 billion cubic feet target and Tallebudgera, which is targeting 300-400MMcf.

Texon says it plans to drill two or three shallow wells per quarter for the remainder of the year.