The well had reached a depth of 3011m before the incident happened and Oil Search is now trying to free the stuck drill pipe.

NW Paua-1 is located about 5km northeast of the Moran oil field in PNG and targets the Toro and Digimu sandstones in a more optimal location on the known hanging-wall structure. The well has a planned total depth of 3400m.

Participants in the well are Oil Search (52.5%) and ExxonMobil (47.5%).

The company added it had re-spudded its Cobra-1 near-field exploration well earlier this week and was drilling ahead to access the original hole.

The original hole was drilled to a depth of 167m before work was stopped due to subsidence at the well site.

The Cobra-1 well in petroleum prospecting licence 190 is 13km east of the SE Gobe oilfield and 7km east of the Bilip oil discovery.

It targets the Iagifu sandstone, which is the principal reservoir in the Gobe and SE Gobe fields, in a seismically-defined sub-thrust prospect.

Cobra-1 has a planned total depth of 3100m.

Participants in the well are operator Oil Search (62.556%), Murray Petroleum (26.497%) and Cue Energy (10.947%).

Meanwhile, Oil Search said it had decided to plug and abandon rather than sidetrack the Salma-1 ST well in Egypt after the drill pipe had to be severed in order to free the drill string.

The company said the well will be re-spudded at a later date after a review of the well design.

The rig will now move to the Shahd South East prospect about 4km from the producing Shahd field.

Partners in Salma-1 are operator Sipetrol (50.5%) and Oil Search (49.5%).