Yesterday morning, the well was drilling ahead in a 311mm surface hole at a depth of 229 metres, Arc said.

Snottygobble-1 will target the Dongara Sandstone – the producing reservoir for the nearby Mondarra, Apium and Xyris Gasfields.

Arc managing director Eric Streitberg said the Snottygobble gas prospect was identified by reprocessing the 3D seismic data over the prospect subsequent to the acquisition of the Denison 3D data.

“We see very strong potential for additional growth in the gas business in the short term and are keen to capture some of that,” Streitberg said.

“Although we are disappointed they have declined to join us in the well, we respect Origin’s decision not to participate at this time, pending completion of a major regional study that has recently commenced.”

The well is targeting a fault bounded closure gas prospect, with P50 potential recoverable reserves of about 20 billion cubic feet of gas. Arc said the reservoir development was assessed as the principal risk.

Upon a commercial discovery, Snottygobble-1 will be quickly brought onto production through the XAGGS gas gathering system, according to Arc.

Streitberg added that all wells in the L1 and L2 licences were named after native plants, including Snottygobble – a member of the Persoonia family.

“[Snottygobble] is a bush tucker plant that has an edible sticky fruit that looks like it sounds, and the common name is derived from the indigenous name for the fruit,” he said.

Partners in L1 and L2 (excluding the Dongara, Mondarra and Yardarino fields) are ARC Energy Limited – (operator and 50%) and Origin Energy (50%).