The company said that while good oil shows and high gas readings were observed while drilling this interval and wireline logs suggested hydrocarbon saturations of up to 50%, the sandstone samples were composed primarily of water with a small quantity of oil.

"The samples are believed to be representative of the formation fluid and reflect a pre-existing oil accumulation which has subsequently been breached," Oil Search said.

The company added that a full evaluation of the well results is being undertaken to understand the mechanisms involved and the remaining potential of this structure.

Oil Search also said casing will be run over the Toro interval to allow future re-entry should the evaluation show that further testing is needed.

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

Meanwhile, Oil Search said it had encountered elevated gas readings while drilling the primary target Iagifu Sandstone at its Cobra-1A well in PPL 190.

The company is preparing to carry out logging operations to ascertain the reservoir fluid content and quality in the Iagifu and the Hedinia sandstones intersected in Cobra-1A, which has reached its planned total depth of 3100m.

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