The Premium Wilcraft jack-up drilling rig arrived at the Frankland-1 well location in WA-286-P around midday Thursday, Western Australian time.

At 6am this morning, it was 850m and drilling ahead.

Frankland-1 is the first of a planned three-well exploration drilling program, which will also include Dunsborough-1 in WA-286-P and Perseverance-1 in WA-325-P.

These wells are located near the Roc-operated Cliff Head oil discovery, but Roc chief executive John Doran has made no bones about his comparative pessimism.

Cliff Head itself has turned out to be smaller than expected and eight exploration wells drilled in an attempt to find another Cliff Head have all been dry.

“From Roc’s point of view, the imminent drilling program is probably the last roll of the dice involving, as it does, two wells which are government commitment wells,” Doran said last month.

“If this program does not yield commercial encouragement, Roc will probably consolidate its Perth Basin interest to Cliff Head and the immediately surrounding area and redirect its exploration dollars to other parts of its portfolio.

“If the program provides a commercial discovery, Roc will be 100% focused on working with its co-venturers to appraise and, if warranted, develop it as soon as possible.”

Participating interests in WA-286-P are Roc (37.5%), AWE Oil (27.5%), Wandoo Petroleum (24%), Arc (6%) and CIECO Exploration and Production (5%).

Interests in WA-325-P are Roc (37.5%), Apache Northwest (37.5%), Arc (20%) and Wandoo Petroleum (5%).