Philip O'Quigley, the chief executive of Falcon Oil & Gas (LON:FOG, CVE:FO), described himself as "more than pleased" with the report submitted by partner Origin Energy on its shale acreage in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory, Australia.
That put a gross best estimate of gas in place at a world-class 496 trillion cubic feet - or up to 82bn barrels of oil equivalent - for the Velkerri B shale horizon within three key licences - EP76, EP98 and EP117.
But that's just one potential play on the huge 16,000 sq km acreage.
"We've got multiple play horizons within the Beetaloo. The primary target was always the Middle Velkerri and we drilled that successfully back in 2015 and repeated again in 2016 and within the Middle Velkerri there's an A, B and C shale but this report only talks to one of those plays within the package - the B shale."
He added: "There's a lot more to go after but at a starting point of 496 trillion cubic feet (TCF) just for the middle Velkerri it's a pretty good place to start."
The Origin report also gave an estimate of the range of recovery possible of that gas in place, and O'Quigley says they have taken a relatively conservative view, considering various factors, and put that at 16- 17%.
Dong the maths, he say, that still amounts to a "staggering" 85 TCF with a recovery factor of 16%.
"That's just a huge number," he told Proactive's Andrew Scott.
"We are more than pleased. We are very excited about all of this," he added. "It's a great day for Falcon shareholders."
Falcon has a 29.43% working interest in the Beetaloo project. Origin is a 35% joint venture partner.
Shares in Falcon in London added almost 24% to 6.5p each.