Located near Dongara, north of Perth, the Hovea Field area has produced over 700,000 barrels of oil with the facility production target of 5,000bopd being made in early June and sustained at that level since then.

The joint venture also recently announced that it was contracting the Century 24 drilling rig to restart the L1/L2 drilling program.

The partners estimate that there may be up to 10 wells drilled in the area in the next 12 months, a large number of which will be on the L1/L2 licenses. This is an enormous turnaround from previous years where one or two wells a year have been drilled in the Basin.

"As has been pointed out many times, the Hovea oil development is the first for 20 years onshore WA. It took perseverance and co-operation between all the parties to make the transition from a greenfields oil discovery to the current production system. The facility is now producing at its target level of 5,000 barrels of oil a day and the project is running very smoothly," said Arc managing director Eric Streitberg.

Participants in L1 and L2 (excluding the Dongara, Mondarra and Yardarino fields) are ARC Energy 50% and Origin Energy Developments 50%.