At 6am this morning (local time), the Australian Drilling Services Rig 6 had drilled the well to a depth of 184m and was preparing to drill ahead following the running and cementing of surface casing over the weekend.

Bow, as operator, said the well – an offset to the Donga-3 discovery well – is expected to take eight or nine days to reach the primary target Donga sandstone. If successful, the rig will immediately move to drill the Donga-5 appraisal well about 550m north.

Located 1km southwest of Donga-4, the Donga-3 well was drilled in October last year and on test recovered 23 barrels of light oil and 39bbl of formation water from the Donga sandstone.

Near the end of an extended production test, the well was flowing about 50bbl of fluid per day, of which a quarter was oil, and was interpreted to have intersected the oil-water contact of the field.

A recent assessment by Bow indicated the field had the potential to contain 2.2-5 million barrels of oil, with recovery depending on adequate water drive.

Bow holds an 85% interest in ATP 805P, while VicPet owns 15%.