In a Corporate File open briefing, Guglielmo said current total production of 2500bopd was expected to increase as new fields, such as Rimfire, came online and pumps were installed.

At Padulla, he said output would increase from about 200bopd to 750bopd. These increases would be partially offset by natural decline, he said.

Following a reserve upgrade across Stuart’s Cooper Basin assets, Guglielmo said processing capacity was likely to be expanded at Worrior and Harpoono.

He said recent field work increased production at Worrior by about 500bopd.

“Further increases may be possible by de-bottlenecking the Worrior process plant – this project is in planning,” he said.

“At Harpoono, expansion of the processing capacity may be required as new and existing discoveries are brought online on the Dunoon Ridge.”

Guglielmo attributed a 38% decline in Worrior production in the September quarter to optimisation projects at the field.

“This work is now yielding very positive results,” he said. “The December quarter should see a significant improvement from this field.”

The company achieved peak total output in the March quarter of this year of 3300bopd, after the Worrior field came onstream. Currently, this field is producing 1300bopd.

Reserves

Last month, Stuart announced that development activity had helped to push up its reserves by up to 1 million barrels (MMbbl) of oil net to the company.

At this level, total reserves net of production would reflect an increase of over 30% on June 30, 2006 reserves of 2.157MMbbl, it said at the time.

During the open briefing, Guglielmo broke down these reserve additions to each respective development, with Padulla estimated to contain an extra 420,000bbl of oil, Worrior with 440,000bbl more of oil, Revenue at 50,000bbl, Derrilyn with 70,000bbl and Arwon at 15,000bbl.

“The reserves addition as foreshadowed has been extremely pleasing and we are confident in our ability to generate growth and expect further reserves additions will be made through to the end of the current financial year,” he said.

Looking ahead, Guglielmo said the company planned to continue drilling prospects on the Dunoon Ridge, starting with the upcoming Dunoon-2 well, to capitalise on what was believed to be a “significant oil-producing trend”.

“Stuart has a significant prospect inventory from which to choose and we will be advising the market of our proposed 2007 drilling program early in the new year.”