New Standard Energy and ConocoPhillips get gas in Canning Basin 

(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) New Standard Energy (ASX: NSE) and ConocoPhillips have retrieved cores from their Nicolay-1 well in the onshore Canning Basin that have backed up the increase in background gas that was detected during drilling.

Initial gas desorption measurements from the core have confirmed the presence of gas though the implications cannot be determined until more detailed core analysis has been undertaken both at surface and in the labs over the coming months.

During drilling operations, the mudlogs detected an increase in background gas from a depth of about 2,850 metres, which has been observed through to the current depth of about 3,200 metres.

Based on the drill cuttings, mudlogs and the cores retrieved at surface, the formation being cored appears consistent with the upper sections of the target Goldwyer Shale, which is predicted to have better qualities towards the base of the formation.

New Standard will now cut a core before resuming drilling towards the target depth of about 3,450 metres.

Nicolay-1 is the first of three wells the joint venture is drilling on the Goldwyer project. Its primary objective is to gather a comprehensive, modern data set over a large section of the Goldwyer formation through a detailed program consisting of mud logging, full coring and electric wireline logs.

The remaining two wells - Gibb Maitland-1 and Blatchford-1 " in the Phase 1 program are also aimed at gathering sufficient data to help delineate and better understand the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Goldwyer.

ConocoPhillips is funding 100% of the costs of drilling the 3 wells under the first exploration phase to a cap of US13 million (A13.07 million).