Glenaire-1 is in the South Australian portion of the permit, about 33km northeast of Mt Gambier and 24km southeast of the Katnook Gas Plant.

Beach told the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday that the Glenaire structure was a large fault block, with the well to target sandstones in the Early Cretaceous Pretty Hill Formation, which are gas productive in five fields in the Katnook area.

Glenaire is assessed to have a mean recoverable gas potential of 68 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas, with a high-side of 193Bcf.

The well is expected to take 63 days to reach a total depth of 3945m.

Interests in the project are Beach (operator with a 50% stake), Santos (30%) and Origin (20%).