On March 10, Beach Energy Ltd. (ASX: BPT.AX) said a new Birkhead Formation oil discovery was made at the Stanleys‐1 exploration well in PRL 171, in Australia’s Cooper Basin.

With a 40% working interest, Beach is the operator, and Drillsearch has 60% working interest.

Stanleys-1, on the Western Flank, reached total depth on March 5 and had strong oil shows. Wireline logs indicated a 7 m gross reservoir interval. A drillstem test recovered 23 bbl over 117 minutes at a calculated rate of 280 bbl/d. The drillstem test ranged from 1,713 m to 1,724 m.

The Australia-based company said that Stanleys‐1 will be cased and suspended as a future oil producer.

The second four‐well pad drilling campaign commenced in the north of the Bauer Field in February 2015, targeting the Namur Sandstone reservoir and overlying McKinlay Member, Beach said in the release.

Top hole batch drilling at Bauer‐20, Bauer ‐21 and Bauer ‐22 was completed in February, with Bauer‐23 subsequently drilled to total depth.

Real‐time logging while drilling data from Bauer‐23 indicated the target top Namur Sandstone was intersected about 3 m high to prognosis, with a preliminary estimate of 6 m of net oil pay and an additional 4-m oil-bearing gross interval of overlying McKinlay Member, the release said. The well will be cased and suspended as a future producer.