Company managing director John Bay told PetroleumNews.net today that L&M and its PEP 38521 partners would consider going back to Fireball Creek if further exploration in other parts of the licence resulted in larger gas finds.

He said a total of 10Bcf or so of recoverable gas might be needed to economically develop gas finds on the isolated West Coast.

The well had reached a depth of 397m and encountered about 8.5m of the primary Omotumotu A sands at a depth of 258m, with an increased background gas reading in the drilling fluid from 0.5% to 5.0%.

L&M said petrophysical analysis of the logs indicated the top of the Omotumotu A sands, which were intersected 20m low to the SFL-1 well drilled by Superior Oil in 1942, were at the gas-water contact.

Based on this analysis, L&M estimated the Omotumotu A sands were likely to contain only 3.5Bcf of dry gas.

Logs indicated the Omotumotu B sands contained only water.