announcement out

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT ASX CODE: CTP
19 November 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.
At 0600 this morning CST, the well had reached a depth of 2,229m TVD RT (True Vertical Depth from Rotary Table) and the drilling string was being tripped out for a bit and bottom hole assembly change. The preliminary interpreted top of the Mereenie Sandstone was at 1,768m TVD RT, 16m high to prognosis. The well had encountered hard silicified sandstones towards the interpreted base of the Mereenie Formation which has slowed drilling rates down considerably. It is hoped that the drilling rates will pick up again after the hard well cemented sandstone has been drilled through. No significant gas peaks have been recorded since the last routine update.
The Mereenie Formation was a secondary target.
Surprise-1 MB Century Rig 7
A summary of the Surprise-1 Prospect is as follows:
Prognosed Objectives: Stairway Sandstone (at 2581m KB) and Pacoota Sandstone (at 2694m KB) formations
Primary target size: 50 million bbls oil initially in place at ?high? estimate
Location: Longitude 23 degrees, 42 minutes 50.758 seconds South and Latitude 129 degrees 59 minutes 36.091 seconds East
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.