The Brisbane-based explorer today said the oil shows were encountered over the interval 1686-1692.5m in interpreted basal Birkhead and top Hutton sandstones.

Bow said a bottom hole drill stem test over the interval recovered 74 barrels of fluid consisting of about 5% oil and oil emulsion, with the remainder of the fluid being mud and water.

“The current plan is to drill ahead to the total depth of 1900m to evaluate deeper targets in the well and re-evaluate the tested oil show zone after wireline logs have been acquired,” it said.

Marracoonda-2 is the first of three back-to-back oil exploration wells of a five-well farm-in program in ATP 752P. It will be followed by Gamma-1 and Nora-1, which have a combined recoverable oil potential in excess of 12 million barrels.

Bow said operations are currently hampered by wet weather, which has caused flooding and made the rig inaccessible. The company said it expects mobilisation of the rig to the next drilling location to be delayed due to the weather.

The first three wells target prospects in the Wompi block on trend and near high productivity oil fields. The final two wells are in the Barta block and are conditional on the results of recent seismic programs.

“A preliminary interpretation of the new and reprocessed 2D seismic data indicates several commercial-size oil prospects are present in the block,” Bow said.

The company is fully carried on the Cooper-Eromanga oil exploration drilling program, with Avery Resources (Australia) funding 100% of each Wompi block well’s cost to casing point or plug and abandonment.

Bow will retain 25% direct working interest after the farm-in program by Avery is completed.

The interests in Marracoonda-2 and ATP 752P (following the completion of the Avery farm-in) are operator Bow with 25%, Victoria Petroleum with 25% and Avery, which will hold 50%.