Co-venturer Carnarvon Petroleum, which holds 40% of the project, told the market yesterday that the well tested small amounts of natural gas, with 750 barrels of water per day, from an openhole volcanic interval at a depth of 1500-1590m.

A second shallower 10m-thick volcanic section, at a depth of 1200m, that produced oil shows during drilling but no lost circulation, was perforated and found to not contain moveable hydrocarbons, Carnarvon said.

Based on these results, WB-1 (Deep) will be completed as a future water disposal well.

However, Carnarvon said the joint venture still had high hopes for these same potential volcanic reservoirs, which would be targeted with several more Wichian Buri F sandstone development wells to the north of WB-1 in the second half of 2008.

These proposed wells will be located in a structurally higher position than their predecessor, as mapped on seismic data.

Elsewhere in the region, Pan Orient expects to spud the “moderate-risk, high-impact” L44-R exploration well in the next five days.

The well site is about 10.5km south of the producing NSE field and but within the main volcanic reservoir play fairway.

L44-R is targeting a 7 square kilometre structural closure with multiple potential volcanic reservoir targets between a depth of 800-1300m.

Meanwhile, Carnarvon says it soon expects to boost its share of production from its Thailand operations from 2940 to 3380 barrels of oil per day.

This is based on a current total output of 7350bopd, projected to grow to 8450bopd following the installation of new infrastructure and additional oil transport facilities.

By late February to early March, Carnarvon expects this to rise further to a total of 10,000bopd, of which it would be entitled to 4000bopd.