The company yesterday said these flows were achieved on a ½-inch choke at a flowing tubing head pressure of 650psi, with only a minor water cut.

The samples have been sent for chemical analysis, but managing director Carl Dorsch saying field results suggested the gas and condensate were of high quality.

“The condensate is very clean, very beautiful – it’s certainly the best quality I’ve seen in a while,” he told PNN.

“I was a bit surprised [the well discovered] gas and condensate and not oil. But we think it’s a good result nonetheless.”

In the next few weeks, the company plans an extended production test to determine the size of the reservoir.

Even though the drilling effort failed to break the onshore Otway’s oil drought, Dorsch said he believed PEL 255 and the onshore part of the basin was still prospective for black gold.

“We’re not 100 percent certain at this stage, but we assume what happened was that the sands have thickened towards the top of the soil pit and have pushed the oil leg down below the water contact,” he said.

Jacaranda Ridge-2 was a follow-up to the non-commercial Jacaranda Ridge-1 oil discovery, which produced 950 barrels of oil on test in 1999.

Dorsch said even though he would have preferred to seen a higher condensate-to-gas ratio, he said the result was “great news” for its 100%-owned PEL 255 permit.

“From results to date in the field, together with seismic and electric data, there is no doubt that this discovery is important to the company,” Dorsch said.

“What is more exciting is the significant upside in the prospectivity of the area now that producible hydrocarbons have been found.”

Adelaide Energy won the rights to PEL 255 over a year ago, having committed more than $13 million in exploration investment over the next five years, of which about $7.3 million is guaranteed.

The company has committed to a 3D seismic acquisition, an aeromagnetic survey and drilling of two wells, together with geoscientific studies in the first two years of the program.