I wouldn’t panic yet... they were going to plug...

I wouldn’t panic yet... they were going to plug regardless...

Last week’s initial interpretation of ‘logging while drilling’ data indicated that drilling hit several pay zones.

This included an entirely new prospective horizon that was not one of the pre drill targets.

The wireline logging that was being run over recent days was supposed to confirm conclusively one way or another whether mobile hydrocarbons were present.

‘Slugging of hydrocarbon and water’ occurred - which is often a precursor to hydrocarbon flow from a reservoir... that sounds very promising...

But then there was a power outage due to equipment failure.

Technical difficulties meant the hydrocarbons could not be properly sampled from the two most prospective zones. Unfortunately technical issues in oil and gas exploration can be quite common.

So while an oil ‘discovery’ has not yet been confirmed, more analysis of sidewall cores will be taking place. The company’s technical team will be analysing the data that has been taken from drilling, and will form a plan on what to do next.

It looks like there is oil down there, but it's still uncertain how much of it and how it flows.