By Stephen Bell PERTH, Australia--Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd....

By Stephen Bell PERTH, Australia--Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd. (CVN.AU) is open to offers for its Thailand oil-production assets, as it prepares to spin the drillbit again at what may be one of Australia's largest oil discoveries in decades. Carnarvon is a junior partner in an exploration campaign led by U.S. energy company Apache Corp. (APA) off the coast of Western Australia state. Carnarvon's shares tripled in value in late August after Apache said the Phoenix One oil well may have found as much as 300 million barrels of crude. The exploration success is prompting management to consider whether it should focus on Australia exclusively and sell its Thai assets, even though they provide its only cash flow. "If we receive offers that are acceptable, we'll look at those carefully," Carnarvon Chief Executive Adrian Cook said Wednesday. Carnarvon, which retains a 20% stake in the Thailand assets after selling half its interest earlier this year, is under "no pressure" to sell, he said. Carnarvon had A$48.5 million and no debt at the end of September. Mr. Cook said the company's success offshore Australia could tempt bidders to move off the sidelines. "There is nothing wrong with a takeover premium, but in fairness to shareholders you'd want to attempt to extract as much value as you can," he told an industry breakfast. "Right now we're quite literally on the edge of, hopefully, something pretty significant and, left to our own devices, we need more time to test the full potential of this area." Apache, which is studying how much crude can be recovered from the Phoenix One field, plans to drill the nearby Roc prospect in 2015, Mr. Cook said.