Cooper said the Sawpit-2 well, located to the north-east of the South Australian town of Penola, was spudded on Monday. It has a planned total depth of 2558 metres and is expected to take 30 days to complete.

The joint venture had planned to drill the well during the June quarter of 2012 but reported at the end of October that the operation would moved to the March 2013 quarter to “maximise the opportunity to share mobilisation costs with other operators planning to drill in the region”.

Sawpit-2