As Smegsy Joint Venture operator, Great Artesian said it had shut-in production to undertake further pressure monitoring of the reservoirs and analysis of the fluid compositions.

“The fluid composition analysis was a scheduled test brought forward to take advantage of the wireline facilities necessary for pressure testing,” managing director Raymond Shaw said.

“The pressure testing is intended to determine the reason for the uncharacteristic decline in pressure, which may be related to possible down-hole mechanical problems, such as a faulty plug used to isolate the producing reservoir intervals.”

These tests will be conducted over the next 10 days, Shaw said.

The Smegsy JV comprises Great Artesian, which holds a 75% stake and Enterprise Energy (25%).

Meanwhile, Great Artesian told the market that PPL 212 operator Beach Petroleum has advised the JV of the Kiana Oil Field reserves.

In addition to the P10 and P90 estimates, Beach has determined the field contains 570,000 bbls of recoverable oil at the P50 level of certainty.

At the end of the March quarter, the Kiana-1 well had free-flowed a total of 62,000 bbls of oil without water from two zones within the Patchawarra Formation.

However, last month free-flow production stopped with the ingression of water.

“This was predicted by the operator [Beach] who had forward plans in place for water separation and installation of a jet pump,” Shaw said.

“At this stage, a work-over rig is expected to be on site late next week to commence installation of down-hole components.”

He added that the cumulative free-flow oil production from Kiana-1 had been greater than originally expected and the overall reserve estimates were at the higher end of expectations.

JV participants in the Kiana-1 well are Beach, which holds a 40% stake, Great Artesian (30%) and Magellan Petroleum Australia (30%).