West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd (WAPET) was a pioneer oil and gas exploration and processing company in Western Australia.
Formed in March 1952 as a joint venture between Caltex and Ampol,[1] the company discovered Australia's first flowing oil in November the following year, at Rough Range on the North West Cape.
[4] The Dongara field is now wholly owned by Arc Energy and has produced 452.6×10^9 cu ft (1.282×1010 m3) of LNG to August 2007.
[6] The company was joined by Shell Development as a partner in 1964 and shortly after, the joint venture made their major find, on Barrow Island.
[citation needed] As a result of the success at Barrow Island and other finds, extensive off-shore exploration in the Carnarvon Basin was undertaken by Australian and American oil companies during the late 1960s and 1970s.