Australian oil and gas exploration company Quadrant Energy started drilling the Outtrim East-1 well, offshore Australia, on June 18, 2016.
The Outtrim East-1 well is located within the WA-155-P(1) exploration permit in the North West Shelf of Australia where Quadrant is the operator with 71.5%, and Carnarvon Petroleum is its partner with 28.5%.
Carnarvon reported in May that the well would be drilled with the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up drilling rig.
The aim of the Outtrim East-1 well is to explore for additional hydrocarbon bearing sands to the North and East of the hydrocarbon reservoir seen at the Outtrim-1 oil discovery.
Carnarvon said on Monday that the forward plan is to drill to approximately 1,300m MD, which is expected to be just above the Pyrenees Formation, which was oil-bearing in the Outtrim-1 well situated approximately 1 km away. It is then planned to obtain around 90m of conventional core.
After obtaining the core, the final section of the well will be drilled to a Total Depth (TD) of 1,440m. The company said it expects to be in a position to report on whether the target formations are hydrocarbon-bearing, and the extent of any reservoir sands intersected, after completion of the wireline logging and pressure and fluid sampling program.
This is scheduled to be the final process in the well, namely after coring is complete, the company concluded.