The companies told the Australian Stock Exchange this morning that the well, in licence PPL 204, had been drilled to a total depth of 2215m and had encountered further oil shows in the lowermost sand of the Patchawarra Formation.

Wireline log interpretation indicated the lower pay zone demonstrated the presence of oil some 8m deeper than the deepest oil previously encountered in the Sellicks field.

The partners recovered 85 barrels of oil over a 90-minute flow period, equivalent to approximately 1365 bbl of oil per day, from the Lower Patchawarra 1 zone encountered at 2139.3-2144.3m.

There were also hydrocarbon shows encountered while drilling through the Lower Patchawarra 2 zone from 2053.4-2155.4m, though these would be tested following the release of the rig.

Scheduled operations over the next 24 hours include running 7-inch production casing, and running completion casing and perforating the lower sand.

Cooper Energy chief executive Michael Scott said the initial plan was to perforate the lowermost Patchawarra sand and put this zone on an extended well test before perforating and co-mingling with production from the higher oil zone.

He also said there would be no more reports on Sellicks-3 until the well had been brought onstream.

An upgrade to the Sellicks field reserves would be issued once the results of Sellick-2 and Sellicks-3 had been incorporated.

Joint venture participants are operator Beach Petroleum (75%) and Cooper Energy (25%).