As a result, the company is now looking at acquiring additional leases in the Mobile Bay area.

“The Mobile Bay area is proving to be very lucrative for the company, especially considering the quick turnaround to production and cash flow from these new leases,” managing director Terry Fern said.

“This latest success means that our six consecutive Mobile Bay discoveries have added a net 18 billion cubic feet of gas to Petsec’s expanding reserves base.

“Significantly, because of the short term discovery-to-production cycle in these shallow water areas, we expect to bring gas from these six discoveries into production early in the third quarter of the current calendar year.”

The sixth successful well, Mobile Bay 994-1, was drilled in 29m of water to a total depth of 2517m by operator Royal Exploration Company.

It was the second in a two-well program drilled from the same surface location as the successful Viosca Knoll 26-1 well, which last month discovered 6.1m of gas pay.

The two wells were targeting a total of 3-5Bcf of gas equivalent net to Petsec, which holds a 50% stake in the Mobile Bay 994 lease.

The Mobile Bay 994 lease, located about 160km east of New Orleans, is adjacent and to the south of the three gas discoveries made late last year on the Mobile Bay 950, 951 and 993 leases.

Eugene Island

Petsec has started a two-well program on the Eugene Island 310 lease, located 200km south-west of New Orleans.

The two wells will test 3D seismic mapped targets of 8-10 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent net to the company.

Located in 67m of water, the Eugene Island 310-1 well is expected to take 18 days to reach a total depth of 2845m.