Perth, Oct 14, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - Please find an update on the re-commencement of drilling the Lake MacLeod-1 well, Gascoyne Sub Basin, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia.

Empire Oil & Gas NL (ASX:EGO)(PINK:EOLGF) announce the current operations consist of mobilisation of full drilling crews to wellsite together with certified personnel for operations to commence Thursday 16 October 2008.

Future operations will be to free drill pipe and run and cement 340mm casing and cement and install blow out prevention equipment and pressure test prior to commencing 24-hour drilling operations of the 216mm hole section to the reservoir objectives. Total depth of the well is 1,000 metres.

The Company looks forward to providing further details of operations at Lake MacLeod-1. Upon commencing the drilling of the 216mm (8 1/2") hole section, the Company will provide Daily Releases to the ASX.

Lake MacLeod-1 is a seismically defined structure with good oil-prone source rocks present in organic-rich marine shales of the Late Devonian Gneudna Formation. The Devonian section in the Quobba-1 well is predominantly shale providing a sealing mechanism of the reservoirs in Lake MacLeod-1. There were good oil and gas shows throughout the Gneudna Formation in Quobba-1 located 33 kilometres to the NW, demonstrating there are porous and permeable reservoirs in dolomites of the Gneudna Formation. Quobba-1 is a Miocene aged structure which post dates oil generation and migration and consequently was a dry hole.

The Lake MacLeod structure is an early structure interpreted to have formed during the Devonian and pre dates primary hydrocarbon migration from the Gneudna Formation source rocks which generated their hydrocarbons during the geological time of the Late Carboniferous to Permian.

It is important to note that none of these early aged structures have been drilled in the Gascoyne Sub basin, Carnarvon Basin. Lake MacLeod-1 is an exciting test of this large early structure.

The large Lake MacLeod prospect covers an area of 27,500 hectares (70,000 acres). Estimated potential recoverable reserves for the larger Lake MacLeod-1 prospect in the EP 439 and EP 461 Permits if the structure is filled to its maximum spill point are in the order of 150 million barrels. Potential recoverable oil reserves within the Lake MacLeod structure in the EP461 permit are more conservatively calculated using a 5000 hectare closure at the Top Nannyarra Sandstone and are estimated to be in the order of 30 million barrels of oil.

The participants in the Lake MacLeod-1 well are:
Empire Oil & Gas NL (Rough Range Oil Pty Ltd - Operator) - 30.356%
Longreach Oil Limited - 9.352%
Indigo Oil Pty Ltd - 4.676%
Falcore Pty Ltd - 2.596%
Vigilant Oil Pty Ltd - 0.52%
Jurassica Oil & Gas Plc - 35%
Black Fire Energy Limited - earning 7.5% by Farmin from the J.V.
DVM International Limited - earning 10% by Farmin from the J.V.