Empire Oil & Gas NL, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Rough Range Oil Pty Ltd ("Rough Range") has entered into a Farmin Agreement with Bounty Oil & Gas N.L. ("Bounty") in the Dune-1 well in the Onshore Petroleum Exploration Permit EP 435, Exmouth Sub Basin, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. The well is expected to commence drilling before the end of this month.

Current operations on site are completing rigging up and mixing drilling fluid to "spud" the well. Bounty has entered into a Farmin Agreement with Rough Range to earn 5% interest in the EP 435 permit, excluding the Rough Range Oilfield Area, by funding 10% of the cost of drilling the Dune-1 exploration well to an expected depth of 1,350 metres.

The target is the Birdrong Sandstone which is the productive formation of the Rough Range Oilfield located 3.0 kilometres to the north-west.

The Dune-1 well will be located on the Bullara Trend on the SE side of the Rough Range Fault on the Exmouth Gulf. The seismically defined Dune structure has potential recoverable reserves of 2.0 million barrels of oil. If the Dune structure is proven to contain oil, this could prove up a new oil trend, the Bullara Trend.

The permit operator has identified two additional structures along this trend: Pindan with potential recoverable reserves of 3.3 million barrels of oil, and Parrot Hill East with potential recoverable reserves of 4.7 million barrels.

Partners in EP 435:

Rough Range Oil Pty Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Empire Oil & Gas N.L) 70% (Operator), Australian Oil Company Limited 25.0% (Earning), Bounty Oil & Gas N.L. 5.0% (Earning)