The well is currently drilling ahead and had reached 2160 metres measured depth at 6am Western Australian time this morning.

The preceding well in the drilling program, Bartsia-1, was also dry.

“Whilst from what we have seen so far this appears to be a disappointing result, Bunjong-1 is only the third well drilled in the recent oil exploration program targeting conventional structural traps,” Arc managing director Eric Streitberg said.

“Of the other two wells, the Evandra-1 well was an oil discovery and will shortly be put on test production. We will now review the results of Bartsia-1 and Bunjong-1 to see what implications these have for the focus of the drilling program going forward.”

Wireline logging and pressure sampling will be conducted to provide additional information after Bunjong-1 reaches total depth.

At the completion of Bunjong 1, Century Rig 11 will be moved to the Dongara 35 location which is an appraisal well targeting the oil leg in Arc’s 100% owned Dongara field.

Participants in L1 and L2 (excluding the Dongara, Mondarra and Yardarino fields) and Bunjong-1 are Arc Energy Limited - 50% (operator) and Origin Energy Developments Pty Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy Limited) 50%.