Drill stem test 4 conducted at 1356-1366.5 metres in the McKinlay formation recovered 15.5 barrels of oil in the drill string and 4.5 barrels of emulsion with no flow to surface.

Stuart Petroleum estimated the McKinlay formation contains mean oil-in-place of 660,000 barrels and a mean reserve of 150,000 barrels. The well will be cased as a future producer.

However, the partners have every reason to feel disappointed. Arwon lies in PEL93, only 2.5km from the successful Worrior field and was seen as having as high chance of success in four different target zones that had delivered the goods at Worrior.

But three of these zones came up dry. For a while it seemed that a fifth, non-target, zone might contain gas, but a drill stem test recovered no gas to surface and 66 barrels of formation water.

Interests in Arwon-1 are Stuart Petroleum 88.8% and Cooper Energy 11.2%.