A joint venture partner in the recent Pavo oil discovery offshore Western Australia has completed a resource assessment that confirms it is a substantial find.

Carnarvon Energy said today the Pavo-1 well proved the existence of a substantial volume of light oil in excellent quality reservoirs.

The contingent resource is estimated at 43 million barrels of oil on a gross basis.

There is an additional prospective resource of an estimated 55 million barrels gross in the Pavo South structure.