From today's AFR start of story only - go to website to read it...

From today's AFR
start of story only - go to website to read it all

ANGELA MACDONALD-SMITH Local reaction to the news this week that US oil player Apache had discovered oil off a remote part of the West Australian coast ranged from exuberant enthusiasm to deep scepticism. Judging by the tripling in the stock price of Apache’s junior local partner Carnarvon Petroleum, the market arguably got ahead of itself. Even so, the chat among industry types is that the find of oil in the offshore Canning Basin – known also as the Bedout sub-Basin – is indeed significant. A company the size of $US38 billion ($40.9 billion) Apache doesn’t release statements talking of a potential “commercial discovery” and a “new oil province for Australia” lightly. It also put its money where its mouth was, immediately committing to drilling a second well in the area, targeting the larger Roc prospect, and exercising an option to take up 40 per cent in two adjacent permits, taking its position in the region to more than 5 million acres.