Indo-Pacific Energy chief executive Dave Bennett this morning confirmed from Wellington that drilling crews had set casing from about 2810m to 4388m and were cementing the liner in place. He declined to comment further, however, saying a final decision whether to flow test the well or not was not likely to be made until Wednesday.

Despite the well having significant mud losses from the deeper part of the hole, industry commentators say it is highly likely a testing program of some sort will be carried out. The standard pressure, leak-off test will be done to ascertain how good the cement bond is and a drill stem test started late this week.

It is likely all the 130m of Kapuni sequence that has been cased will be tested first and, if the well flows oil to surface, then isolated zones within the Kapuni sandstones encountered will be tested later this month.

"It's definitely good that they have run pipe and that the targeted formation is not the fractured Tikorangi limestones which were encountered by Fletcher Energy years ago at Waihapa,' said one commentator.

"Whether this well will ultimately prove productive remains to be seen, however. Let's hope so though."

Drilling crews had planned to run the seven-inch casing right down to the 4500m target depth within the Kapuni group sandstones, but the condition of the last section of the hole made that impossible.

Several kilograms of thick waxy crude, a typical Taranaki oil, were recovered from the well after the Parker Drilling Rig 188 broke through the Murihiku Supergroup basement thrust which was prognosed to overlay the prospective Tertiary Kapuni section.

Huinga-1B is being directionally drilled from the existing Huinga 1 well bore, to target the Tariki sandstones and Kapuni group sandstones at a location approximately 550 metres west of the Huinga-1 well site in PEP 38716.

Huinga is on the eastern margin trend, the prospectivity of which has been established by the more southern onshore Rimu and Kauri discoveries, and further enhanced by the results of the recently drilled and suspended Makino-1 well.

The nearby Waihapa production station and pipelines will aid any development decision should Huinga-1B prove commercial.