VIENNA, April 13 (UPI) -- The discovery of a 426-foot layer of natural gas at an exploration well in Australia is one of the largest to date, Austrian energy company OMV said Wednesday.
OMV announced that it discovered natural gas in the Zola-1 exploration well off the western coast of Australia.
The company said it drilled a well in an area south of the giant Gorgon gas field, encountering a sandstone layer with 426 feet of net gas pay.
"This represents one of the largest gas discoveries by the company," OMV said in a statement.
Jaap Huijskes, a board member and exploration official at OMV, said the find paved the way for further development and production from the Australian continental shelf.
"The next step will be to further appraise the gas discovery, including the acquisition of a new 3D seismic survey," he said in a statement.
U.S. energy company Apache Corp. made a similar announcement in March, saying it logged 410 feet of natural gas in sands more than 13,000 feet below sea level in the same region.
