The 2,298 metre deep well was expected to take around 15 days to complete and was being drilled in 15 metres of water.

The new well – located 128 kilometres (80 miles) south east of New Orleans – is the second in a program of two to three wells to be drilled from the same location to test mapped potential of approximately 12 billion cubic feet to 15 billion cubic feet equivalent of natural gas (net to Petsec).

Drilling of the Main Pass 19-2 well follows the announcement earlier this week that the first well, Main Pass 19-1 had resulted in a commercial gas discovery.

Petsec has a 45.83% net interest in the well.