Wellington-based Austral told the NZX last night that repairs to the 9 5/8-inch casing in Cardiff-2B had been successfully completed and that the well was about to drill into the top of the Eocene-aged Kapuni sands at a depth of about 4000m.

As Cardiff-2B was to be drilled to a 4900m TD - to intersect all the gas-bearing sandstone units found in the earlier wells - testing of Cardiff-2B was not scheduled to start until next month.

Operator Austral kicked off Cardiff-2B earlier this month after unspecified drilling problems with the first sidetrack Cardiff-2A, but not before that well had encountered good hydrocarbon indications in the upper Kapuni.

Cardiff-2A itself was started after operational problems with the original Cardiff-2 well, which encountered good shows in the McKee, K1A, K2 and deeper K3E sands.

Austral and its “deep” PEP 38738 partners estimate the Cardiff prospect could contain 1 tcf or more of recoverable gas.

In the same lease, jet-pump testing at the Cheal field further north in the licence continues, with the Cheal-A4 well producing an average exceeding 400 barrels of oil per day and 200,000 cubic feet of gas per day. Cheal-A4 has now produced a total of 6455 barrels of oil and the third jet-pump test is about to start, followed by similar testing on Cheal-A3X.

Meanwhile, Austral commercial manager Jenni Lean has resigned from the company to become chief executive of UK company Rift Oil Plc, which earlier this month farmed in to the Papua New Guinea licence PPL 235 where operator Austral and Rift plan to drill Douglas-1 later this year.

Lean will continue as co-ordinating manager of the Douglas project, which includes an imminent wellsite survey and negotiations to secure a rig so the well can be drilled in the third quarter.

The Cardiff “deep” partners are operator Austral Pacific, Genesis Energy, Cheal Petroleum and International Resource Management.