The company added that neither the primary objective Nukhul formation nor the secondary Nubia sandstone were intersected, leaving the play’s prospectivity untested.

Plans for further drilling in the area will be considered after the drilling data has been evaluated.

Partners in South Gharib-X1 are Oil Search (70%) and Petrogas E&P (30%).

Oil Search also said it expects to resume drilling at its Cobra-1 near-field exploration well in Papua New Guinea in about a week, once the rig is moved back into place.

The company had partially moved aside the rig to carry out remedial civil works after investigations into subsidence observed at the well site were completed.

This work has since been completed.

The Cobra-1 well in petroleum prospecting licence 190 is 13km east of the SE Gobe oilfield and 7km east of the Bilip oil discovery.

It targets the Iagifu sandstone, which is the principal reservoir in the Gobe and SE Gobe fields, in a seismically-defined sub-thrust prospect.

Cobra-1 has a planned total depth of 3100m.

Participants in the well are operator Oil Search (62.556%), Murray Petroleum (26.497%) and Cue Energy (10.947%).

Meanwhile, Oil Search said it had intersected 27m of oil shows in the secondary target Naifa dolomites at the Dahgah-1 well in Yemen.

The company said the oil shows were located in the same section as the producing interval in the Nabrajah-5 production well.

Further evaluation options will be assessed once the logging programme had been completed.

Partners in Block 43 are DNO (56.67%), Oil Search (28.33%) and The Yemen Company (15%).