Wellington-headquartered Austral Pacific says production testing of the Miocene-aged Mt Messenger began on Sunday morning and yesterday the well was nearing stabilised flow rates and averaging 320 bopd, with no associated water, through a 22/64" choke, together with 225,000 cubic feet per day of associated gas.

Company chief executive Dave Bennett has said Austral Pacific, which operates the PEP 38738 licence, will production test the Mt Messenger for a month before moving up the well to test the shallower Urenui pay zone.

This should determine long-term producibility and provide estimates of oil and gas reserves accessed by this well, the third of three wells drilled from the Cheal-A site, all of which have produced oil and gas on test.

Oil from Cheal-A3X is being trucked to Swift Energy’s nearby Waihapa production station for processing.