Drilling of St Gabriel-1 stopped in March about 500 feet shy of total depth, after encountering an abnormally high pressure formation at 10,300ft.

The high drilling costs and risks associated with this occurrence saw Austin opt for a farm-out agreement with Drillmar, which also took over as operator.

After a total depth of 10,790 feet was reached on Sunday night, Drillmar decided that a drilling break at a depth of 10,640 feet was sufficient to test the W sands, the main objective of the well.

“Drillmar has indicated that prior to the drilling break, background gas was consistently 400 units, but increased to between 800-1000 units post drilling break,” Austin said.

“The well will now be cased to total depth, the rig released and wireline logs run to evaluate the newly drilled portion of the well.”

Located in the Iberville Parish, the St. Gabriel-1 well is targeting 1.82-5 million barrels of oil, and 13.6-36 billion cubic feet of gas potential.