Sunshine yesterday said the well had reached its total depth of 577m and now awaited permeability testing of the intersected coals in the coming weeks. The well had intersected its coal seam targets and had achieved good core recovery.

The Mitchell Drilling Rig 120 had moved 20km west of the Lacerta-3 site and spudded Lacerta-4 on Monday. The rig was now preparing to start coring operations, having set surface casing at 66m.

Sunshine said Lacerta-4 was the last of a three-well coring program aimed at establishing the Walloon CSM play across ATP 795P to the north of the Pleasant Hills gas field.

That well would also obtain core samples through the coal measure sequences and following wireline logging, undergo permeability testing to establish the potential flow characteristics of the coals.

Sunshine said it expected final results from the coring programs, including gas content and permeability data, would not be finalised for two or three months.