NZOG exploration manager Eric Matthews said from Auckland that the partners believed there was enough updip potential to justify suspending the well after it had reached a total depth of 3031m. The partners hoped the analysis of well data would justify a deviated well to be drilled from the site at a yet-to-be-specified date.

The revised total depth of 3031m was reached early today and the targeted Kapuni C sands intersected. However, there were only minor associated oil shows, which were not deemed to be commercially significant.

Matthews has said the complex Taranaki geology, with its complicated faulting and overthrusts, proved Opito-1 to be an intriguing but frustrating well. The adjacent Turi formation had NZOG first believing it had encountered the target zone. However, everything else had been as prognosed.

Opito-1 was a rank wildcat and the first exploration well to be drilled in PEP 38729. It was drilled from a coastal drilling site, approximately 75 kilometres northeast of New Plymouth, and targeted a mapped closure of over 44 sqkm, which NZOG believed had the potential to contain over 200 million barrels of recoverable oil.