"Our assets will deliver substantial net operating income in 2008 of approximately $A27 million and $A50 million in 2009 and this will grow even more into the future," he said.
Focused on Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, Cue is a partner in some major projects, including Indonesia's Oyong oil and gas development and New Zealand's Maari oil scheme.
Cue already has cashflow from its Oil Search-operated Southeast Gobe field in PNG and the Santos-operated Oyong oil development in Indonesia.
Santos is now developing Oyong for gas sales. First Oyong gas production is scheduled for the end of 2008 and is expected to be 60 million cubic feet per day gross.
The field has proven and probable (2P) reserves of 97 billion cubic feet.
Oyong will be tied into the as yet undeveloped Wortel gas discovery, which has a 140m gas column above the gas/water contact. First gas from Wortel is expected in 2010.
But of all of the company's developments, the Maari oil project in New Zealand will have the greatest short-term impact on Cue, even though the company holds just 5% in this scheme.
Coppin said the Maari area has 2P reserves of about 50 million barrels, with Cue's share being 2.5MMbbl. The area's upside could be another 10-20MMbbl (Cue 500,000 to 1MMbbl).
Maari is operated by Austrian major OMV. A floating processing, storage and offtake vessel is being modified and first oil is expected next year with initial production expected to be about 35,000 barrels per day (Cue 1750bpd).
First production is expected in the third quarter of this year. The nearby Manaia structure could also hold substantial amounts of oil and could be produced from the same facilities, Coppin said.
Net cash flows from the first full year of production from the Maari oil field development off Taranaki, New Zealand will exceed $US1 billion ($A1.07 billion) if world oil prices stay around the $US100 per barrel level, broker Bell Potter Securities said recently.
Cue expects to produce 400,000 barrels of oil this year from SE Gobe, Oyong and Maari and 800,000bbl next year with more than 600,000 of that coming from Maari.
Barring further discoveries or appraisal upside, oil production will begin declining in 2010.
Gas production is expected to be about 5 billion cubic feet per year from 2010 until 2013. It will then begin declining in 2014.
But these figures assume no further discoveries are made, and Coppin says this is unlikely.
"We have a strong exploration and appraisal inventory," he said.
The appraisal options include Manaia oil (near Maari) and Barikewa gas, near Oil Search's Kimu gas field.
Coppin said the development of at least one and possibly two or three LNG projects in PNG would create substantial new gas infrastructure and commercialisation options.
Exploration assets include the Spikey Beach prospect in the Bass Basin, which operator Beach Petroleum has assessed as potentially containing up to 33MMbbl of recoverable oil.
Spikey Beach has a 27% chance of success; the depth to target is 1450m and the planned total depth is 2000m, according to Beach. Cue has 10% in this prospect.
In Western Australia's Carnarvon Basin, Cue has stakes in four adjacent permits and is planning to drill the Zeus target (Cue 20%, operator MEO Australia) which lies about 25km northwest of the Perseus and Goodwyn gas fields. Cue and MEO see LNG potential in this acreage.
