In a drilling update yesterday, the Melbourne-based midcap said the Browse Basin well was being drilled ahead at a vertical depth of 3541m.

“Over the course of the next week, the anticipated operations will be to drill ahead to the planned total depth of 3958 metres and run wireline logs,” Nexus said.

Spudded on January 23, the Crux-4 well will test the mapped South East Horst extension of the field.

Nexus said this well was expected to provide important information for the project.

Crux-4 is the second of three wells to be drilled in the greater Crux area.

The first well, Crux-3, was production tested at 50 million cubic feet of gas and 2000 barrels of condensate per day from the Montara Formation, which overlays the deeper reservoirs encountered in the other Crux wells drilled to date.

The third well will be drilled in the adjoining AC-P41 exploration permit to test the Libra exploration prospect, in which Nexus holds a 50% interest in partnership with Shell.