“This is the second successful well in a program of four wells to be drilled from the company’s recently installed Main Pass 19 platform,” the Sydney-headquartered company said in a statement.

The platform is located 128km south-east of New Orleans.

The Main Pass 19 G-4 well reached total depth on January 12 and encountered eight productive sands with an estimated 43 metres of net gas pay, according to Petsec.

“It was a good result, as pre-drill reserve targets for the well were met and the reservoir limits of a number of sands were extended,” the company said.

After setting production casing, the rig will be preparing to drill the Main Pass 19 G-5 well.

The drilling program will test total mapped potential of about 15 to 18 billion cubic feet equivalent of gas net to Petsec Energy.

Petsec is the operator and has a 55% working interest and 45.83% net revenue interest in the field.

Meanwhile, Petsec reports that gas production from the Main Pass 19 field has now stabilised at around 24 million cubic feet per day gross from the three wells drilled in mid 2005 – up from the initial level of 15.5 million cfd gross announced on January 11, when the field was brought into production.

Petsec Energy’s share of Main Pass 19 production is 11 million cfd net.

The company’s current daily net production in the Gulf of Mexico is now roughly 30 million cfd.