The company today said drilling of the well, which is suspended at 2359m, will restart using the coiled tubing unit to evaluate the primary target in the Permian section.

This will see the well deepened to a total depth of about 2500m.

Rawson said the primary Permian reservoir target interval, equivalent to that which produced oil at Bellbird-1, will be evaluated during this stage.

Stage 2 is expected to take about six days and the well will be drilled underbalanced open hole in order to evaluate hydrocarbons encountered on an ongoing basis, it said.

Potential recoverable reserves from the Permian objective alone for the Bellbird West Prospect are between 300,000 and 1.6 million barrels of oil.

Both Ausam and Rawson will earn a 25% in the ATP 552P permit, by each paying 50% of the cost of the well, from Great Artesian Oil and Gas.