Beach Petroleum advises that Christies-4, an appraisal well in Christies Oilfield in the Eromanga Basin, South Australia, spudded at 00:00 hours (CST) on 17 March 2006. At 0600 hours this morning the well was drilling ahead at a depth of 47 metres.

Christies-4 will appraise the south eastern extent of the Birkhead/Hutton oil pool discovered in July 2003. It is the first of two Christies wells in this program.

The well is located approximately 200 metres east northeast of Christies-3 and 500 metres southeast of Christies-1. It has a planned total depth of 1684 metres, which is expected to be reached later next week. A secondary target of the well is the Poolowanna Formation.

Beach Petroleum is changing to weekly reporting on its routine drilling activities. The status of this well and others that Beach has an interest in will be reported on the Tuesday of each week. The next update on Christies-4 will be on Tuesday 21 March 2006.

Participants in the PPL 205 Joint venture are: Beach Petroleum Ltd (Operator) 75% Cooper Energy Ltd 25%