In a statement today, the Sydney-based junior said operator Royal Exploration Company on Friday spudded an exploration in the Mobile Bay 994 lease to test a prospect in the south adjoining Viosca Knoll 26 lease.

Should this well be successful, the joint venture plans to drill another well from the same location to test a prospect in the Mobile 994 lease, which is located about 160km east of New Orleans and neighbours the three gas discoveries made last year on the Mobile 950, 951 and 993 leases.

Located in 29m of water, the Viosca Knoll 26-1 well is expected to take seven to 10 days to reach a total planned depth of 1545m.

Both wells are targeting a total of 3-5 billion cubic feet of gas net to Petsec.

Meanwhile, the company says that Main Pass 18 gas production will start earlier than expected.

This follows an agreement to use the Main Pass 19 platform and facilities to produce the Main Pass 18 G-6 well.

"This agreement provides a timely boost to our 2007 production as we expect to bring the Main Pass 18 field into production within th next few weeks," Petsec chairman Terry Fern said.

Drilled this time last year from a caisson next to the Main Pass 19 platform, Main Pass 18 G-6 discovered about 7 Bcf of gas net to the company.