“During the past 14 days, the production test of the interpreted oil-bearing mid-Jurassic Namur sandstone oil zone over the gross 9.8m interval from 1482.5–1492.3m resulted in the recovery of 16 barrels of oil and 561 barrels of drilling mud filtrate and formation water,” VicPet said.

“Preliminary analysis of the production test results indicate that the 24 barrels of oil and no water recovered on open hole drill stem test may have been flush oil production from a residual oil column.”

PPL 93 operator Santos has completed cased hole production testing operations at Wilpinnie-4 and has released the workover rig, PEL 115 partner Victoria Petroleum said this morning.

Given these results, it now seems likely that the up-dip Tomcat Prospect in the northern part of PEL 115 would encounter a similar possible residual oil column, the company said.

Because of this, Tomcat will not be a near-term drilling target for the PEL 115 Joint Venture.

“Exploration drilling focus in PEL 115 will now move to the southern part of PEL 115 with the drilling of the Lancer and Fury prospects to commence in two to three weeks time,” VicPet managing director John Kopcheff said.

Lancer and Fury are about 6km north of the oil-producing Mirage Oil Field. The drilling rig is anticipated to be on location towards the end of this month.

Kopcheff said VicPet was disappointed that a commercial oil flow could not be obtained from the Wilpinnie-4 cased hole testing operations given the very positive open hole test oil recovery, but the possibility that the oil encountered was residual supported the company’s belief that significant quantities of oil had migrated up dip through the northern part of the permit.

“Although the Tomcat Prospect is now not an immediate drilling target, we will continue to search for prospects to drill in the northern part of PEL 115,” he said.

PPL 93 is a Santos-operated production lease enclosed by the Victoria Petroleum-operated PEL 115 exploration permit. Wilpinnie-4 was drilled in January, after the PEL 115 joint venture farmed-in to the Wilpinnie North Block in PPL 93.

Stakes in Wilpinnie-4 and PPL 93 are: Santos (33%), Impress (20%), Victoria Petroleum (20%), Delhi (10.105%), Roma Petroleum (10%) and Origin Energy (6.595%).

The interests in PEL 115 through the various wholly owned subsidiaries are: Victoria Petroleum (40%), Impress Energy (40%) and Roma Petroleum (20%).