The company said it was casing and suspending the well, before completing it as a potential gas producer at a later date.

Three drill stem tests were run in the well – two in the Epsilon Formation and one in the Toolachee Formation.

In the Epsilon, the first DST run at a depth of 2977-2980m flowed about 4.4 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Eagle suspected a tool malfunction was behind why the second DST, run at 2960-2693m, failed to flow hydrocarbons to surface.

It had better luck on the third DST, run in the Toolachee Formation at 2929m-2931m, which achieved 2.8MMcfd.

Vanessa-1, which was drilled to a total depth of 3250 metres, was the second well to be drilled by Eagle Bay in PEL 182.

The first well, Sarahlyn-1, was considered sub-commercial.

Now the joint venture has contracted ISIS Petroleum Consultants to further de-risk the next two wells in the campaign, Jasmine-1 and Michelle-1, with seismic remapping and reprocessing.

This means drilling of the two wells will be delayed by a further few months.

The PEL 182 JV comprises Audax Resources with a 49.9% stake, Eagle Bay (operator with 37.6%), Dome Resources (7.5%) and Australian Oil (5%).