The discovery located at PEL 91 is the first well, part of a five well exploration drilling campaign.
The PEL 91 is a joint venture with Drillsearch Energy holding 60% and Beach Energy 40%.
The well encountered a gross oil column of seven metres with five metres of net pay in the Namur Sandstone section of the well.
Preliminary volumetric assessment suggests up to 1 million barrels of gross recoverable oil.
Oil has also been discovered in the Birkhead Formation over a 24 metre interval, which is being evaluated on wireline logs.
Hanson-1 will be on-line in the third quarter of 2011.
The Ensign rig #18 will be moved to drill the Snellings-1 exploration well, sited 1,500 metres to the north of Hanson-1, following the evaluation program.
