Ambassador Oil & Gas resumes drilling of Cooper Basin well, to test oil shows later 

(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Ambassador Oil & Gas (ASX: AQO) will return to test the McKinlay Formation after drilling its Shocking-1 exploration well in the Cooper Basin to its planned total depth.

Drill stem testing of the formation had failed to secure a valid result due to a mechanical failure.

Operator Senex Energy (ASX: SXY) will now resume drilling to the next primary objective, the basal Birkhead Formation.

It will then run wireline logs to confirm the presence of moveable hydrocarbons before carrying out tests on both formations.

Ambassador and Senex had encountered good oil shows in the McKinlay Formation earlier this month.

The Shocking-1 well is located just 1.8 kilometres north of operator Senex's producing Vintage Crop-1 well and 65 km southeast of the Moomba oil and gas processing facility.

This allows the well to be commercialised quickly in the event of a success.

Considerable upside also exists at Shocking-1, with the structure mapped at holding potential recoverable oil of more than 500,000 barrels from the Murta, McKinlay and basal Birkhead/Hutton formations, all well-known oil producing horizons in the Cooper basin..

The Century Rig 3 is expected to take about 14 days to drill the well.

Following testing, it will then move to drill the second Ambassador well, Kruger-1, which targets 380,000 barrels of oil.

Under the farm-in agreement, Ambassador will pay 100% of drilling costs to earn a 60% interest in each successful prospect. Senex holds the remaining 40%.