Operator Austral Pacific Energy said on its website that downhole and surface equipment operations, to precede pre-fraccing of the bottom test zone, were now scheduled to start next Monday.
The Cardiff-2A well was completed in March and in early April Austral said testing had been delayed by a lack of available testing and fraccing equipment and was due to start on 5 May.
Wellington-headquartered Austral has previously said it was planning a four-month production test of the Cardiff prospect that could contain 1tcf or more of deep gas at the Eocene-aged Kapuni level.
Good quality logs and some gas shows were encountered in several Kapuni sands – particularly the McKee, K1A and K3E (the main producer at the adjacent Kapuni field) – during drilling.
Austral was also preparing to terminate Cheal-A4 testing and to start Cheal-A3X testing at the nearby Cheal field within the same permit. Cheal-A4 produced more than 28,000 barrels of oil since testing started last January