The company said the well confirmed the presence of a series of sands within the primary Admiral Formation appraisal objective

Slightly elevated gas readings were observed while drilling through the main reservoir sand. However, further analysis of wireline logs, reservoir pressure data and side wall cores is required to fully assess whether these readings represent a gas-charged extension of the reservoirs intersected in previous Longtom wells, about 5km away, the company said.

Wireline logs from the upper exploration objective also confirmed that the sands were water bearing.

"The results from the Garfish-1 well do not impact on 1P reserves for the field and, at this stage, it is not clear what impact the well will have on 2P reserves," Nexus said.

"The results of this well will be combined with information collected from drilling the Longtom-4 development well before a reassessment of reserves is undertaken."

The Longtom-4 well is expected to be spudded by the West Triton jack-up rig later this week and the log analysis is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Nexus Energy owns 100% of the VIC/L29 permit.