“The completion of the Dongara-34 well will allow us to produce the remaining reserves of gas in the Dongara Sandstone pool in the North Block of the Dongara field,” said Arc executivve director Eric Streitberg.

“The surface location of the well is adjacent to the Dongara-24 and Dongara-31/32 wells which will allow its early production to the Dongara plant. The Dongara-33 well will substantially complete the development program of the gas reserves of the Arranoo Pool.”

Dongara 34 is operated and 100% owned by Arc.

The well took additional time to complete as drilling problems in the initial well bore required a plug back and sidetrack. But no problems were encountered in the redrill.

The reservoir section was encountered on prognosis and is 34 metres updip from Dongara-12, which was the previous high well in the North Block of the Dongara Field.

The rig will now be moved to drill Dongara-33 which is a further Arranoo Sandstone development well.

Following the drilling of Dongara-33, the rig program will be used for appraisal of the Elegans gas pool as well as oil exploration and development in the L1 and L2 permits – some parts of which are held solely by Arc, while other parts are hled in a 50/50 partnership with Origin Energy.

“The order of drilling of the wells will depend on joint venture and regulatory approvals and the completion of technical evaluation of the Denison 3D seismic data,” Streitberg said.

The Denison 3D seismic survey update has suffered a three day delay due to wet weather but is nearing completion, according to Arc.