“We thought we would have to frac the C zone and were expecting it to produce between 1 and 2 million cubic feet per day, but when we perforated the zone it had such significant gas and pressure that it immediately started flowing between 3 and 4 million cubic feet per day,” Cruickshank told EnergyReview.Net.

These results have been achieved using a ¼-inch choke with 2700 psi at the well head and no water production, he said.

“Based on these results, we can produce 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per year from the C zone in Ellis-2, which would earn us about A$11m net per year,” he said.

“Currently we make about $20 million a year from our wells in turkey, so this one secondary zone in one well will be able to increase our net revenue by 50%.”

These figures don’t take into account the two other zones in Ellis-2 or any of the three zones in Ellis-1. Nor do they consider the six wells still to be drilled in Antares’ six-well program at the Ellis field.

Cruickshank said Antares now believed the B zone in Ellis-1 and -2 would also be very productive and would not require fraccing.

“When we perforated the B zone in Ellis-1 the pressure was so strong that it pushed the perforation tool back up the drill hole,” he said.

As a result, the zone was not properly perforated. Antares has now decided to produce gas from the C zones in these two wells before returning in one to three months to perforate the B zones.

On 23 November shareholders at Amity Oil's annual general meeting voted to change the company's name to Antares Energy Limited, the name of its US subsidiary, to better reflect the growing importance of its US interests. Antares Energy Limited trades under code AZZ.