The company reported yesterday that the well was now at 2968m, meaning it has made only 300m of progress since the first drilling failure two weeks ago.

At this time, Geodynamics fished out broken parts of the bottom-hole assembly and restarted drilling while investigating to see whether there was any further equipment damage.

Geodynamics said the investigation found several the drill collars were bent or showing cracks.

“These issues are considered to be the cause of a second failure over the weekend,” the company said.

“The drill string was readily recovered and has been lain out and inspected… confirming that additional drill collars were damaged and showed signs of cracking in their connections.”

Geodynamics said it has identified the reason behind the problem.

“The root cause of the problem, the case of inadvertently re-setting the weight-on-bit (done by computer touch screen), has been addressed successfully with the rig manufacturer,” the company said.

All the drill collars and other damaged items have been sent away for repair and drilling is expected to restart in about two weeks.

During this time, Geodynamics plans to make normal adjustments to the rig structure under the direction of the manufacturer.