"Victoria Petroleum is pleased to have commenced the third well in our current development program on the field,” managing director John Kopcheff said.

The first two development wells, BG Webb-1 and EFB D-24 were successful and Victoria Petroleum anticipated achieving its target of recoverable gas reserves of 200 billion cubic feet (bcf), according to Kopcheff.

Operations at E-10 started last week when a hole for 16” conductor pipe was drilled to 24.4 metres, operator Texas Crude Energy said.

The field is a down faulted, four-way dipping closure lying east to the field under a shallow Laguna Madre sea lagoon.

It has a 3P reserve of 23bcf of recoverable gas with further upside potential of 44bcf of recoverable gas, for a total of 67bcf of recoverable gas in Frio Massive, J and K sands, Victoria Petroleum said.

E-10 is planned to reach 2,042m vertical and is the second well in a 2-well development and 3-well work over program at the field.

It will test the remaining potential of 36bcf of recoverable gas in the shallow Frio Massives and, if successful, will be brought on production to replace the nearby EFB E-9 well abandoned before full production, Victoria Petroleum said.

E-10 will be drilled directionally to target the structure from the same pad as D-24 that lies on an existing production and drilling peninsular in the lagoon.

D-24 met and exceeded reserve expectations after targeting 3P reserves of 17bcf of recoverable gas and additional potential of 14bcf of recoverable gas in the lower Frio J and K sands, Victoria Petroleum said.

Workovers are also scheduled this month to bring back into production the shut in D-17, D-19D and D-19F wells - the first phase of the redevelopment program.

Participants: Victoria Petroleum 16.67%, Sun Resources 16.67%, Aurora Oil & Gas 16.67% and United States private investor companies 50%.