Interoil – which is soon to delist from the ASX and PNGSX – said its subsidiary SPI (210) Ltd had this week encountered some background gas, with peaks of 4.6%, while drilling down to the planned 1200m target depth within a reef limestone in licence PPL 236.

Current operations were drilling ahead to the target objective identified by a seismic survey after setting 7" casing to 945m and pressure testing BOP.

But Interoil cautioned that previous wells drilled in the area had also experienced background gas and that background gas at Black Bass in no way confirmed commercial hydrocarbons had been encountered.