OREANDA-NEWS.  OMV, the integrated, international oil and gas company, confirms the successful appraisal of the Zola gas discovery with the drilling of the Bianchi-1 appraisal well. Wireline logging and pressure testing in Bianchi-1 confirm the presence of multiple gas bearing sands having in total approximately 112 meters of net gas pay.

Bianchi-1 is located in the WA-49-R license in the offshore Carnarvon Basin, 6.4 km north-northeast of the Zola-1/ST1 gas discovery and in an area south of the giant Gorgon gas field. The Bianchi-1 well targeted a number of sandstone reservoirs in the Triassic age Mungaroo Formation down dip of the large Zola-1/ST1 gas discovery made in 2011.

The Bianchi fault block is one of a series of adjacent features that form the greater Zola structure. The prospect was matured following interpretation of the Cambozola 3D seismic survey in 2012.

The well has been drilled by the Ocean America semisubmersible rig as a vertical well in a water depth of 240 m under the operatorship of Apache. The well was drilled in 94 days to a total depth of 5,400 m below sea level. The net gas pay figures above are based on the operator’s initial analysis. Following completion of logging operations the well will be plugged and abandoned.

Jaap Huijskes, member of the OMV Executive Board responsible for Exploration and Production (E&P): “Bianchi-1 is the first follow-up to OMV's exciting Zola gas discovery in Australia and is an important step in progressing Zola to development.”