Cooper Energy chairman Greg Hancock said the company was thrilled with the flow but was cautiously optimistic about the well's future.

"We are currently drilling ahead but the well could provide a fantastic opportunity for us in this section of the Basin.

"There are a number of prospects in this area and while the intersected structure isn't a big one it is a positive development," said Hancock.

The Kiwi structure is a fault bounded, four-way dip closure with the Eromanga Basin comprising the primary and the Cooper Basin the secondary targets.

Kiwi-1 is located 5.5km north east of the Keleary oil field and 10km north east of the Telopea oil field, which together have produced over two million barrels of oil. The new well is downdip of the existing fields and thought to be on a similar oil migration pathway.

The structure is faulted through the Permian section on the southeast flank, providing a conduit for Permian hydrocarbons to migrate into Eromanga reservoirs.

Participants in the PEL 90 Kiwi Block Joint Venture are Stuart Petroleum (Operator) 75% and Cooper Energy 25%.

Tempering the success of Kiwi-1 for Cooper Energy was the P&A of the Semaphore-1 well in which it was partnered by Beach Petroleum and Magellan Petroleum.

Semaphore-1 was designed to test the oil potential of the Triassic Tinchoo Formation, Early Jurassic Poolowanna Formation and Hutton Sandstone in an area 25-30km north of Santos Limited's producing Keleary and Telopea Oil Fields.