Swabbing of Wombat 3 continued late last week with about 1,400 metres of fluid being removed from the well bore.

The swabbing equipment being used continued to jam during the operation. Lakes has decided not to continue persisting with this method.

"The oil that has been recovered from this well has come from an open natural fracture at 2,107 metres," the company said in a statement.

"It is now our intention to move in equipment to artificially fracture this portion of the reservoir using high-pressure nitrogen. This will clean up the reservoir which has absorbed a large quantity of drilling mud whilst drilling, together with cement used to “set” the production casing.

"Hopefully this will then allow the oil to flow without interference."

Meanwhile, Lakes has decided today to engage the Hunt Rig to drill Echidna-1, which is located about 10km north-west of the Wombat field.

"The Echidna structure is a lookalike to Wombat," the company said.

"If successful it will substantially increase our gas in place number and will open up other similar structures in the region."