Oilex spuds Australian well

Oil and gas explorer Oilex said drilling has started on its La Rocca-1 well off the coast of western Australia after the arrival of the "Ocean Patriot" rig.The well was spudded at 3:20am (western standard time) on 30 April, 2011.The La Rocca-1 well is the first exploration well in the WA-388-P permit located north of the Pluto, Wheatstone, Gorgon and North West Shelf Project fields.The well is operated by Apache Northwest, which has had extensive success in exploring this play in the outer North West Shelf.Oilex has an 8.4% participating interest in the WA-388-P permit.---jh