Beach Petroleum Ltd’s oil discovery success on the Western flank of the Cooper basin in South Australia has continued with an excellent result from its Callawonga-6 well.

The Callawonga 6 well hit 9.5 metres of oil producing reservoir sands in the joint venture’s latest drilling campaign in the area.

This continues a long run of success in the area in the past four years which has produced four commercial oil discoveries and more than a dozen producing wells.

“This is a great New Year's present for the PEL 92 joint venture after a record performance for 2008,” Beach's managing director, Reg Nelson, said.

Callawonga-6 is the second of a number of development and exploration wells to be drilled in the joint venture's latest campaign in the area. The well intersected 9.5 metres of net oil pay in the McKinlay/Namur formations and is expected to make a strong contribution to the block’s rising production profile in the opening half of calendar 2009.

Mr Nelson said, "Beach and its joint venturer, Cooper Energy, have made substantial investments to improve delivery capacity from the block over the past year." "It's a great credit to all concerned that oil is flowing continuously through the new Callawonga to Tantanna pipeline - and thence to Moomba and Port Bonython - at levels of up to 5700 barrels per day."

Beach owns an approximate 20% interest in the Moomba facility and the Moomba to Port Bonython liquids pipeline through its subsidiary, Delhi Petroleum.

"We are working to increase the pipeline's handling capacity with the expectation that these new wells and improvements in production capacity will allow production to rise above present levels," Mr Nelson said.

"If necessary, we will continue to augment it by trucking.

"We have great faith that our exploration team will continue to make new discoveries as the campaign progresses."

After casing Callawonga-6 as an oil production well, the drilling rig will move to a new location to drill Gunyah-1, located about 8km SW of the Callawonga Oilfield and 2km south of the Parsons Field.

Beach Petroleum is the Operator of PEL 92 and owns 75% in joint venture with Cooper Energy (25%).

Tags: Beach Petroleum Limited