Antrim will fund 100% of the cost of the first well located in the southern Browse Basin on the North West Shelf of Australia, with Magellan's working interest in the permit to be reduced from 50% to 12.5%.

The well will be drilled to a minimum depth of 3,700m in around 300m water depth.

The two companies will each continue to hold a 50% working interest in the adjacent permit, WA-307-P, with oil discoveries in this area often fast-tracked to production using floating production facilities.

The results of the recent 2003 seismic survey has upgraded the prospectivity of an 80 km trend of prospects identified in permits WA-306-P and WA-307-P, resulting in the confirmation of several attractive drilling targets.

The initial well will target oil in the South Galapagos prospect, a significant 'four-way closed' structure in the Jurassic Lower Vulcan and Plover Formations.

The Jurassic formations on the North West Shelf host individual fields up to 180 Million barrels of recoverable oil and more than 20 Tcf of gas.

Estimated mean potential reserves for the Galapagos South and Galapagos prospects are each in excess of 100 Million barrels of oil.