I can answer that question, its fairly straight-fwd to those in...

I can answer that question, its fairly straight-fwd to those in the oil patch who deal with 'real time' data.

Step 1:
The way it works on a rig, the circulation mud with the cuttings comes back to surface through the flow line into the possum belly.

Step 2:
The cuttings are sorted out on the shakers & the mud is returned back to the returns pit.

Step3:
In the possum belly, the mudlogger has a degasser that churns this retirning circulation mud. Any gas liberated frm the mud goes back to a Total Gas detector & a Gas Chromatograph.

At this point they can tell the concentration in 'PPM' (parts per million) of C1 to C4 (methane to butane) & Total gas in percentage.

A separate CO2 or H2S detector, if requested by the operator, gives the relevant breakdowns.

When u get a gaskick there's generally gas bubbling up with the drilling mud & this can b again analysed (as mentioned in step-3). Note kick controls can b expensive, as u mix a lot of heavy mud to supress the 'gas bubble'.

An operator usually waits till wireline logs r run, to collect the gas samples & pressure data from the MDT tool.

Also, if they have an MWD motor, change in resistivity & gas breakdowns on the mudlog gives an initial idea of what's coming out of the hole, water or gas kick.

For now, Neon's ASX release said 'Hydrocarbon', so we will just have to wait for the side track section to b drilled & logged to confirm the gas zones.

cheers