Oil Search said this morning that the Toro was penetrated at 3968m, and was drilled to 4025m, before two cores were cut.
The well was then drilled to a total depth of 4130m, and to date no gas-water contact has been penetrated.
The joint venture, which includes ExxonMobil (42.5%) and Santos (20%), ran a full suite of logs and pressure data tools, and is now evaluating the data.
Assuming the omens continue to be positive, the partnership will move to conduct production testing of the discovery, which could be a significant producer, supporting PNG LNG Train 3, which the partners are working to develop.
Once flow rates from the Toro Formation have been established the well and its three sidetracks will be plugged and abandoned.
Oil Search said there was little doubt that the well had found a potentially significant new gas field, 21km north-west of the Hides facilities and immediately north of the Juha gas field.
Appraisal of the field is being considered for 2018.
April's Muruk-1/ST2 sidetrack, which was drilled in a north-easterly direction from the Muruk-1 wellbore to a depth of 3737m about 1km from the original gas discovery, found the Early Cretaceous sandstone had been tightly folded and overturned, and contained water.
The discovery well was drilled to a depth of 3130m and encountered the reservoir quality Toro Formation sandstone exactly as expected, containing a mix of gas and condensate with no water contact observed.
The aim of the sidetracks was to locate the gas-water contact associated with the 350m gas column, and so far that has proved to be more difficult.
Pre-drill estimates were for a potential 1-3Tcf.
There is a prospect immediately to the north, Karoma, which may also be drilled in 2018, depending on the results of the current drilling and seismic confirmation.
Oil Search said there are three prospects in NW Highlands, on trend with Muruk, with combined unrisked potential mean resources of 4-6Tcf.
