The Century-3 drilling rig is currently moving to the Christies-4 location – the fourth well in the Christies oil field – which will target the Namur and Birkhead/Hutton oil reservoirs.

The well is expected to take eight to 10 days to reach a total depth of 1684m.

If successful, Christies-4 will help maximise reserves and sustain production at the field, according to Cooper.

Partners in the project are operator Beach Petroleum (70%) and Cooper Energy (30%).

Meanwhile, Cooper said its positive first-half result, which includes an 83% rise in sales revenue to $15.9 million, reflected a strong performance at its core Cooper Basin oil operations.

Net oil production for the half also increased 30% to 183,430 barrels of oil, averaging just over 1000 barrels per day.

Cooper Energy chief executive Michael Scott said the first-half results reflected a solid operational performance and provided a strong foundation for the company’s continued growth and development, including its aggressive current 10-well program.

Highlights of the first half included starting production from two new wells in the Cooper Basin – Arwon-1 and Worrior-3 – both of which were tied into existing facilities, according to Scott.

“We have a program of five appraisal/development wells planned for the first half of 2006, including Worrior-4, which spudded on March 5, Christies-4, Christies-5, Sellicks-2 and Sellicks-3,” he said.

“This program is designed to continue our strong track record of reserves growth and assist in sustaining our forward production.”

Cooper Energy’s proved reserves (P50 discovered and developed) also climbed 11.6% during the first half to 1.13 million bbls. This was due to development of the Christies and Sellicks oil fields moving reserves from the undeveloped to developed category, and field production demonstrating larger reserves than those previously reported.

“With this solid operational and production base, Cooper Energy is strongly positioned for growth through exploration, with a program of three wells planned in the Cooper Basin and another well at the Kurnia Prospect in the South Madura PSC, Indonesia,” Scott said.

Three Cooper Basin wells have been completed to date, with production testing of key hydrocarbon zones of interest at Fairbridge-1 due in mid-May.

Cooper is also planning to drill a further four exploration wells in the near future, namely Silver Sands-1 and Boomer-1 in PEL92 and Dalray-1 in PEL93 in the Cooper Basin, and Kurnia-1 in the South Madura PSC.

The company also recently received the first approval from the Indonesian Government to proceed with the Kurnia-1 well. The well is targeting a major onshore prospect on South Madura Island where preliminary geological evaluations have attributed undiscovered P50 reserves of 199 million bbls of oil and 256 billion cubic feet of gas.

Scott said in addition to its Cooper Basin operations and Indonesian exploration program, the company was progressing its other offshore exploration opportunities in the Cambodia offshore Block B and Tunisia offshore Bargou Block prospecting permits.