"I have no comment to make, to either confirm or deny these rumours, not even to EnergyReview.Net," was all Bennett would say to ERN while driving on a California freeway today.

"Neither confirm nor deny" was the stock United States response regarding possible nuclear weapons aboard US warships that visited New Zealand during the 1980s.

Rumours have resurfaced that Indo-Pacific expects to soon list on the main board of the stock exchange (NZX), with an initial public offering (IPO) of up to $NZ10 million.

This follows the company's June announcement of the placement of special class securities to a number of "prominent and experienced" private investors in New Zealand, raising approximately $US900,000 for future exploratory work.

Those securities carried the right to convert to either common shares in Indo-Pacific, which is listed on the Toronto exchange, or to a share of future revenue streams or to participation in any future New Zealand-based IPO. Shares in Indo-Pacific already trade on the unlisted Kiwi market.

Any listing on the NZX main board would give small investors an opportunity to participate in the now almost frantic search for new gas reserves to avoid supply shortfalls from perhaps 2005.

Bennett hinted at such a listing earlier this year when he said up to three "deep gas" wells, targeting the Tariki Sandstones or Eocene-aged Kapuni group, could be drilled within the next two years, given the successful raising of the necessary exploration capital.

He also said he believed Indo-Pacific had some of the region's best deep gas prospects within its own acreage, including the Akama prospect in onshore Taranaki licence PEP 38453. He told ERN Akama was a deep-gas feature identified by seismic, which looked similar to, but better than, the nearby Huinga and Makino prospects.