The joint venture – which includes Australian companies Victoria Petroleum, Sun Resources and Aurora Oil & Gas – said completion operations were planned to begin around 18 April, subject to availability of equipment and services.

Well completion, fracture stimulation and testing operations on BG Webb-1 could run for a further 30-40 days and a decision would then be made on which gas pay to produce first, the joint venture advised.

Evaluation of well data has defined four separate new gas-bearing zones over an interpreted gross interval of 113 metres with a total 27m of net gas pay.

“This result is meeting our pre-drill recoverable gas reserve estimates with up to 104 billion cubic feet of gas potential behind casing proved by this well so far plus the additional reserves from the new deeper K sands confirmed to be gas bearing by the wire line logs,” said Victoria Petroleum managing director John Kopcheff.

“The newly discovered lower multiple Frio K series pay zones in this section of the well are the deepest ever drilled in the Flour Bluff Gas Field.

“If the flow tests on these new pay zones are successful, they have the potential to add additional significant reserves to the 104 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas already estimated by the operator to be already present behind casing above 3,255 metres in the western portion of the Flour Bluff Gas Field.”

The joint venture has approved the construction of a pipeline to connect the well to the joint venture’s gas gathering system for the Flour Bluff Field. Permitting for the pipeline is in progress.

Current operations were now rigging down to move to the second well in the Flour Bluff drilling program, East Flour Bluff D-24, the partners said.

The EFBD-24 well would be the first test of a potential gas reserve of 31 billion cubic feet of gas in the East Flour Bluff Field, where 66 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves were targeted.

The East Flour Bluff Field lies in a downthrown 4-way dipping structural closure to the east of the main Flour Bluff Field. Operations were now due to start at the EFB D-24 site on or about April 15.

Participants' working interests (through local subsidiaries where applicable) are: Sun Resources NL 12.5%, Victoria Petroleum Limited 12.5%, Aurora Oil & Gas 12.5% (formerly Tony Barlow Australia), Texas Crude Energy Inc (operator) 25% and US private interests 37.5%.