“Gas-bearing, porous sands have been logged in the Neocomian target zone and their commercial viability is currently being assessed. It is anticipated that additional Neocomian sandstones will be intersected in the corrected well bore at greater depth,” said the company in a statement today.

A downhole motor assembly has been mobilised from Europe to correct a deviated section of the well back on to target and to continue to drill ahead and explore further potential for oil and gas.

“The well has also begun to identify traces of crude oil in shale samples via geochemical analysis of cuttings believed to originate from Upper Jurassic source rocks. These traces provide the first evidence, from depth, of the presence of crude oil in the region and have now been geochemically-matched to surface oil seeps close to the well site, to several other surface seeps identified on the Tanzanian mainland at considerable distances from Nyuni-1 and to analysis of tar balls. This appears to confirm the widespread presence of oil-prone and oil-mature Jurassic source rocks,” said the drilling report.

Despite the extended duration of the drilling, managing director Tom Fontaine remained optimistic about the well, located on a sand island offshore Tanzania.

“The isolation of the drilling location and the deeper than expected target have contributed to a substantially extended drilling program. Nevertheless, we remain positive about the potential outcome for Nyuni-1. Our preliminary logging has identified gas sands and we now look forward to shortly drilling through what we believe may be an oil-prone section that could contain reservoir quality sandstones. The oil traces identified in Nyuni-1 are potentially a milestone for the whole region,” he said.

Bounty stock has recovered from lows of 14 cents during the week to be trading at 18c this morning.