While the operator Apache has not released definitive results, junior partners say the high oil water contact and the reservoir characteristics are very encouraging.

"Of course, we'd like to say it was a new oil discovery but it's not. The shallower intervals were disappointing but it has given us a very good idea of the reservoir quality of Chamois," said one of the partners.

Chamois-1 was not fully tested when drilled and the results from this well provide valuable input into the reservoir quality of the c halosa sand formation in which the Chamois discovery is located.

The primary target, the M australis sand which is productive in the nearby Stag oilfield, showed evidence of migrated oil but without a reservoir.