The Udacha Prospect is located within an area encompassing portions of PEL 91 and 106, known as the Udacha Unitization Area, which is operated on behalf of the JV by Beach Petroleum. Udacha-1, was spudded on 11 January 2006. The Udacha-1 exploration well tested a faulted anticline located on the eastern plunging edge of a prominent structure, the Kuenpinnie Nose. The primary objective was the Patchawarra Formation but secondary reservoir potential was anticipated within the Toolachee and Epsilon formations as well as in the Tirrawarra Sandstone.
The well was funded 25% by Traditional Oil (a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandanna Energy Limited) in order that it would retain a 12.5% participating interest in the event of a commercial discovery. The well was designed to drill to a total depth of 2775 m. There were some engineering problems during the drilling of the well which resulted in difficult hole conditions.
During September 2006 a CHPT of the Udacha-1 well commenced. Gas flow rates of nearly 1 million cubic feet per day were measured, which is considerably higher than the 0.4 million cubic feet rates measured during the initial open hole DST. Following analysis of the CHPT data the operator predicted that gas flow rates in excess of 2.0 million cubic feet per day should be achievable with fracture stimulation. The operator has since announced reserve estimates of gross recoverable sales gas for the Udacha Prospect range between 1.9 (P90) and 8.8 BCF (P10) with a P50 of 4.1 BCF and a mean of 4.9 BCF.