At Cliff Head, the ENSCO 67 jack-up rig has now completed development drilling of the six production wells and two water-injection wells.

Roc said the field was producing at a better-than-expected rate, with only four of the six production wells currently onstream. When Cliff Head was first brought onto production in mid-May, Roc was expecting production to reach 10,000bopd from the four wells.

Cliff Head partners and their associated equities are Roc, which holds a 37.5% stake, AWE Oil (27.5%), Wandoo Petroleum, a Mitsui subsidiary (24%), Arc Energy (6%) and CIECO Exploration and Production (5%).

With the development drilling now complete, the ENSCO 67 rig has relocated to the Moondah-1 exploration well in TP/15, also in the Perth Basin. The well is expected to spud later today.

Located 17km from Cliff Head, Moondah-1 is in 12m of water and has a planned total depth of 1330m.

Moondah-1 will target Late Permian reservoir sands in a large rotated fault block in the northern part of the Beagle Ridge.

On completion of the Moondah-1 exploration well, the rig will drill the Frankland-1 exploration well in WA-286-P. On current rig timing, the program is expected to be completed in August.

One further well, Perseverance-1 in WA-325-P, is expected to be drilled if rig timing permits.

Meanwhile, Roc says the second half of the Mauritania drilling program started on Friday, with the Atwood Hunter drill rig spudding the Woodside-operated Colin-1 exploration well in PSC Area A.

The well, which is located in 168m of water, has a planned total depth of 2320m. Earlier this morning, Colin-1 had been drilled to a depth of 254.5m.

On completion, the Atwood Hunter will drill the Dana-operated exploration wells Flamant-1 (Block 8) and Aigrette-1 (Block 7). Further Woodside-operated exploration wells are still being considered, Roc said.