The partners include Carpenter Pacific, Westgold and Horizon Oil.

Horizon said it hoped the operator OMV New Zealand would release results this afternoon enabling the stock to be traded tomorrow morning.

Last week Horizon Oil (formerly Bligh Oil and Minerals) reported that the semi-submersible Ocean Bounty rig encountered a shallow 10m thick and possibly oil-bearing high resistivity sand.

This 1240m-deep interval is thought to be the M2A sands, which have been penetrated and found to contain commercial oil in previous wells drilled in the field.

The maximum thickness of the M2A sands encountered in the previous Maari-1 and Moki-1 wells had been 5m, so double the thickness may mean another target for the Maari partners to investigate.

"The thicker sand package in Maari-2 may significantly increases the reserves within the M2A and render them a development target, alongside the main Moki reservoir," said Horizon in last week's report, which recently bought the 10% stake in PEP 38413 from OMV.