The Melbourne-based company said the increase is expected to be “economically beneficial” for the recycle project, as it will result in a proportionate increase in condensate resources and condensate rates.

Earlier this month, Nexus said the Crux-2 sidetrack well had intersected the “A” and “B” sands as predicted, and also found an unexpected pay zone in a younger formation it described as having excellent reservoir properties.

Twelve separate down-hole samples were obtained from the Crux-2 and Crux-2 sidetrack wells, indicating that the Crux gas contains about 35 barrels of condensate per million standard cubic feet of reservoir gas.

Nexus said this is a 25% increase over the value measured in the Crux-1 well of 28 barrels per million cubic feet of reservoir gas.

The new value is 13% higher than the condensate gas ratio of 31 barrels per million cubic feet of reservoir gas, which was used to calculate the best-case estimate of condensate resources of 55MMbbl.

The company said the sampling confirms that the condensate content of the gas is uniform over the entire 256m gas column encountered in the original Crux-2 well bore and the current sidetrack.

Nexus said the information gained from the Crux-2 and sidetrack well will now be integrated into the field geological model, which will enable it to provide an updated estimate of recoverable field volume in the near future.

Nexus holds a 100% interest in permit AC/P23. It plans to secure an investment decision for the Crux gas/condensate project in early 2008 with first production expected in 2010.