The current depth is 1039m which is more than one-third of the total planned depth of 3100m.

Cobra is in petroleum prospecting licence 190, 13km east of the SE Gobe oilfield and 7km east of the Bilip oil discovery.

The well is directed at the Iagifu Sandstone - the principal reservoir in the Gobe and SE Gobe fields - in a seismically defined sub-thrust prospect.

Cobra-1A is being drilled from a diffferent tophole position than Cobra-1 after subsidence corrupted the original hole.

Oil Search says Cobra-1A is the first well in PNG to target a sub-thrust play as its primary target.

Participants in Cobra-1A are operators Oil Search (62.556%), Murray Petroleum (26.497%) and Cue Energy (10.947%).

Third time lucky at Paua

Oil Search has made 275m progress for the week at its NW Paua-1 ST3 well and is drilling ahead from its current depth of 2558m.

The lack of problems was a welcome change as the second sidetrack attempt failed last week after drilling equipment was lost prior to casing and the first attempt was plugged after it failed to move from the original hole.

The total planned depth of the sidetrack is 3600m.

The well targets the Toro and Digimu sandstones in a more optimal location on the known hanging-wall structure than the Paua-1x well that was drilled in the mid 1990s, according to Oil Search.

Participants in NW Paua are Oil Search at 52.5% and ExxonMobil at 47.5%.

Egypt

Meanwhile Oil Search reported that its Shahd SE-1 well in Egypt made weekly progress of 372m and was running in hole with a nine and five-eighth-inch casing at its current depth of 2577m.

The Shahd SE-1 well is in the Western Desert and has a total planned depth of 2970m.

Oil Search is currently moving to sell off its Middle Eastern assets in order to raise funds for its participation in the ExxonMobil-operated PNG LNG project.