announcement - just out

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT ASX CODE: CTP
22 October 2010
TO: The Manager, Company Announcements ASX Limited
CONTACT: John Heugh +61 8 9474 1444
SURPRISE-1 OPERATIONS UPDATE (EP-115)
Central Petroleum Limited (ASX:CTP) (?Central?), as Operator has pleasure in providing this drilling update for the Surprise-1 well.
The well was spudded 1730 CST on 11th October 2010. The 20? conductor pipe was set at 21.3m. A downhole motor is being used to drill with mud rather than air, due to the larger hole sizes for greater depths precluding the running of the rotating BOP rubbers required for air drilling. A 17-1/2? hole was drilled to 499m, and a 13-3/8? casing was run to 493.8m and cemented. The wellhead and BOPs were installed and pressure tested and the well is now drilling ahead with a 12-1/4? drilling assembly.
Surprise-1 showing relative location to the Johnstone West-1 well. Surface scale in metres and vertical scale in two way seismic time.
A summary of the Surprise-1 Prospect is as follows:
Primary target: Oil in the Pacoota & Stairway Sandstone Formation
Primary target size: 50 million bbls oil in place
Location: Longitude 23 degrees, 42 minutes 50.758 seconds South and Latitude 129 degrees 59 minutes 36.091 seconds East
Target chance of success: 40% (supported by live oil in Johnstone-1)
Formation depth: 1,500 meters
Equity Interest: Frontier Oil & Gas Pty Ltd (a Central wholly owned subsidiary) (90% and Operator), Trident Energy Ltd (10%)
Should hydrocarbons be discovered, and the wireline logging results are positive, it is planned to evaluate the reservoir by conducting a flow test or tests.
Central will continue to update the market on Surprise-1 drilling operations as more significant information comes to hand.
John Heugh
Managing Director
Central Petroleum Limited
For further information contact:
John Heugh Tel: +61 8 9474 1444 or Robert Gordon Corporate Writers Tel: 0413 040 204