Last month, the Cabinda South joint venture formally approved an estimated $US54 million ($A68.5 million) 2007 work program, with wildcat drilling expected to start in May.

“We expect to drill three wells but we’d like to drill six,” Doran said in a Boardroomradio interview yesterday.

“Any one of those wells could change the company – that’s the extent of that potential.”

Doran has previously said Roc Oil became “different company” in 2006, thanks to increased production and revenue resulting from the Chinguetti and Cliffhead oil fields coming online, as well as its growing operations in China.

In the September quarter, the company’s daily net oil production averaged above 11,000 barrels of oil per day, compared with “virtually no production” at the beginning of the year.

“It takes a lot to make us happy, because particularly when you’re an operator you do focus a lot on the challenges,” he told Boardroomradio.

“But when you lift you’re head off the desk and look around – gee [2006] was a great year. It was a ‘change the company’ year … and a privilege to see it happen.

“2007 – it could be equally dramatic. That requires success in exploration and we enjoyed some of that last year in the Beibu Gulf.

“So we have this sequential growth strategy and we’ve termed it ‘a conveyor belt of projects’ and frankly it’s kicking in rather well at the moment.”

In addition, Doran said his company had almost finalised a rig for the offshore Perth Basin, where it plans to drill two or three wells in March and April.

Roc is also trying to contract a rig to undertake more exploration drilling in the China’s Beibu Gulf.

“So when you put all that into the corporate pot and shake it about a bit, there’s no shortage of drill-bit news in 2007,” he said.