The junior explorers informed the market that the well flowed gas at a stabilised rate of approximately 3.2 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the Carynginia Limestone gas reservoir, thereby confirming that commercial rates of gas can be produced from a previously undrilled portion of the field.

"We are very pleased with the results from Woodada-19, which have confirmed our technical predictions that this undrilled section of the field is capable of producing gas at commercial rates," said Hardman managing director, Ted Ellyard.

"The well had achieved its primary objective of increasing gas deliverability for the Woodada Gas Field."

The partners said the well has now been shut in to measure gas reservoir pressures and to establish long-term deliverability, prior to connecting the well into the pipeline gathering system.

What the partners have not been able to quantify is the presence of a deeper oil structure. Strong pressures were registered from below the Carynginia but the volume of drilling mud and lost circulation material is thought to have damaged the formation to such an extent that the partners could not recover their lost drilling fluids, let alone produce a reservoir stream.