Impress Energy said this would include a development well for the Growler field and three near-field exploration wells - Tigershark-1, Tigercat-1 and Meteor-1. Drilling is planned to start in the third quarter of 2008.

It added that it would complete a development plan for Growler that will include the acquisition of 3 seismic before the end of the first quarter of 2009 once the extended production test is finished.

Meanwhile, the company said production from the two Growler wells had reached 200-210 barrels of oil per day after being put on pump production.

Impress said VicPet plans to make step rate increases in production only when it is satisfied with the production against the drawdown levels of the wells.

It added that the production test may be extended from 100 days to 150 days to gain sufficient data to proceed to a full development.

While confirmation of the field's productivity was originally expected to be known in the first quarter of 2008, this is now expected to happen only in the third quarter.