A regional drilling programme was undertaken to investigate the economic potential of possible Permian coal occurrences within buried extensions to the Lake Phillipson Trough, in its adjacent northern Penrhyn Trough and south-eastern Ingomar regions (Areas 'A' and 'B' of EL 2249). In the latter licence block, during April 2000, six rotary/core holes (total 781 m) were drilled and geophysically logged at locations which might reveal thick and shallow coal seams suitable for mining as part of the SASE Project. However, the target interval of the upper Mount Toondina Formation was not intersected, suggesting that it may have been removed by post-Mesozoic erosion. Thus it is unlikely that significant coal potential exists within this area. As it later transpired, only a separate one of the coal exploration programme's eight drillholes, AEP-8, located outside of the now relinquished Area 'B', succeeded in intersecting marginally prospective coal: this may be suggestive of resources in the Penrhyn Trough additional to those identified there by previous SADME exploratory drilling in 1994-1995. It was decided to surrender the barren Ingomar block of the licence.