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The company had drilled the well, which is located about 5km northeast of the Moran oil field in PNG, to a depth of 3011m before the incident happened.
NW Paua-1 targets the Toro and Digimu sandstones in a more optimal location on the known hanging-wall structure than the Paua-1x well which was drilled in the mid 1990s.
Paua-1x encountered oil shows in the Toro sandstone and recovered oil from the Iagifu sandstone but was interpreted to have been drilled on the wrong side of the structure.
The sidetrack has a planned total depth of about 3600m.
Participants in NW Paua-1 are Oil Search (52.5%) and ExxonMobil (47.5%).
