Earlier in the week, the company also won the exploration rights to permit EP444 in the onshore part of the Carnarvon Basin for six years.

The latest farm-in agreement-426, which includes the Moriary prospect, is subject to NT Oil’s successful listing on the ASX.

NT Oil would earn its interest by funding one-third of the costs to drill the Moriary-1 exploration well to a total depth of 2550m.

In late January, Empire farmed-out a 25% stake in EP-426 to US-based Wharf Resources for $A735,000. These funds would also be used to cover the costs for drilling the Moriary-1 well, Empire said.

The Moriary prospect is an anticlinal structure similar to the Mount Horner Oilfield, with potential recoverable oil reserves totalling 11 million barrels, according to Empire. This includes 3 million barrels at the “F” Sand objective, 4 million barrels at the “J” and 4 million barrels at the “L” Sand objectives in the Jurassic Cattamarra Coal Measures.

Meanwhile in Exmouth Sub Basin permit EP 435, the Dune-1 exploration well is due to start drilling on March 25, following delays caused by Cyclone Emma and other tropical lows in the Kimberley region in recent weeks, Empire said.

The company said mobilisation of equipment was expected to start Monday, now that roads, which were closed due to heavy rainfall, have reopened.

The Dune-1 access road, drilling pad, dams and waterlines from its borefield have now been completed, while the company’s mobile drilling camp for 20 people is almost complete.

In mid-January, Empire contracted Drilling Contractors of Australia and its DCA Rig 7 to drill the Dune-1 well, with the option to drill five additional wells. The rig is currently being mobilised from its previous site in the Kimberley.

With a planned total depth of 1350m, the Dune-1 well will evaluate a seismically defined structure to test the Birdrong Sandstone reservoir, productive at the company’s Rough Range Oilfield, 3km north-west.

Dune-1 will determine whether structures on the south-eastern side of the Rough Range Fault have the potential to be filled with oil to their spill point, although these structures were not formed by the Miocene-aged compression, which formed the Rough Range Anticline.

Dune and other structures on the Bullara Trend are believed by Empire to have been formed before primary oil generation and migration from the Paterson Trough.

If this model is correct and Dune-1 is an oil discovery well, the Bullara Trend could be a new oil trend, the company said.

Participants in the Dune-1 well are Rough Range Oil, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire, which holds a 75% stake, and farminee Australian Oil Company, which owns the remaining stake.