The revised estimates stem from an intense 12 month campaign including the completion of a 12 well drilling and coring program over a large portion of the field and an extended production testing pilot located in a central part of the field.

The field, covering an area of 750sq.km in ATPs 592P, 623P and 701PA, has completed drilling and production testing which confirmed 648 petajoules (PJ) of recoverable proved plus probable reserves (2P reserves). This represents an upgrade to total reserves of around 500PJ.

"This result provides further confidence that the total recoverable resource potential of the Durham Ranch field will ultimately exceed 1000 PJ. This further consolidates CSG's position as a real and competitive alternative to offshore gas," said OCA director, John Piper.

OCA expects to complete the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for the full scale Durham development by end September 2003.

Following this, OCA plans to proceed with further development including the drilling of a further 40 wells over the next 15 months, a major gas processing facility and pipeline connection to the Wallumbilla hub.

OCA's current interests in ATPs 592P, 623P and 701PA are 89.1%, 93.7% and 99.5% respectively.