East Wing-1 was spudded on April 26 and has reached a depth of 582m. Planned total depth is about 2400m.
The earlier Ayrford-1 was plugged and abandoned after wireline pressure testing failed to find a producible gas column.
Essential is targeting the onshore extension of the highly productive Pecten High trend, which has offshore discoveries containing more than 400Bcf of recoverable gas in the Waarre Formation at the Casino, Henry and Halladale gas fields.
Essential owns 100% of the PEP 168 permit.