But this morning, the company reported that further drilling produced no significant shows from the Poolowanna formation or the top of the Tinchoo formation. Both these zones will be further evaluated by wireline logs.

With recent rain closing all roads in the area, testing equipment could not be brought to the site in time to run a bottom-hole drill stem test (DST) over the oil-bearing primary objective as planned, Eagle Bay said. This zone will now be evaluated by wireline logs and a possible post-logging straddle DST.

This morning, the well was drilling ahead at a depth of 2186 metres in the Tinchoo formation in an 8½-inch hole.

Emily-1, which spudded on January 7, was the first commitment well of a scheduled six-well program to be drilled in year one of the permit.

With a total planned depth of 2364 metres, Emily-1 is about 6.5km updip from the 1997 Santos oil discovery at Tarragon-1, which flowed 1,500 barrels per day from the Hutton and 500 barrels per day from the Tinchoo sandstone reservoirs.

PEL-182, a 1745 square kilometre permit, has about a dozen oil and gas leads and prospects mapped for future evaluation, the company said.

The permit was awarded to Eagle Bay on the August 10 last year, after strong competitive bidding, the company said.

Participants in Emily-1 are: AuDAX Resources Ltd (39.9%), Eagle Bay Resources NL (operator - 37.6%), Australian Oil Company No2 P/L (12.5%) and White Sands Petroleum Ltd (10%).