In two separate statements, junior partner Tap Oil said the joint venture has now cased and suspended the Lee-3 well for production and is doing likewise to the West Cycad-2 appraisal well.

Meanwhile, its recently completed Doric-2 development well has been producing 80 terajoules (74.32 million cubic feet) of gas per day for the past two weeks via the Linda Platform.

Also drilled from this facility was the Lee-3 well, which is due to start producing both gas and condensate by the middle of next month following platform hook-up, according to Tap.

The drilling rig has now left the Linda platform to move onto the Wonnich platform to start Wonnich Deep-1 drilling operations.

In production licence TL/9, the West Cycad-2 well has reached total depth after encountering “excellent quality” Flag Sandstone as expected. The well is expected to come online in the next fortnight at rates of 4000bopd via the Varanus production hub.

Interests in the HJV are Apache, as operator with 68.5%, Tap with 12.2229% and Kufpec with 19.2771%.