Not since the late 1980s - when the Zapata Artic semi-submersible and JFP-Eleven jack-up rig were anchored off New Plymouth - has there been this level of drilling activity in the waters off Taranaki.
New Zealand Overseas Petroleum - a subsidiary of the Houston-based but Bermuda-registered Transworld Oil group of companies - last week set up a small office for the Tui-1 well program, which is due to start in licence PEP 38460 in late January. The Tui well will be the Ocean Bounty's fourth and final well in its scheduled program.
OMV Petroleum has recently set up a larger office one floor above NZOP in the same building for its Maari-2 drilling campaign.
NZOP drilling superintendent Tom Stroud said he was very pleased to be here. "We have been surprised with the level of co-operation we have found here in New Plymouth and in Wellington. This drilling program is going to be a real pleasure," he told EnergyReview.Net today.
NZOP took a 45% stake in PEP 38460, as well as taking over as operator from New Zealand Oil and Gas, last November.
Stroud added that he was also surprised by the general level of activity in the small city of New Plymouth and had already heard plenty about The Last Samurai - parts of which are being shot in the more northern Uruti Valley - and of Tom Cruise and the Oakura mansion he is staying at just south of the city.
The farm-in of NZOP will allow NZOG, and associate Pan Pacific Petroleum, to finally drill the Tui prospect, which industry commentators say has the potential to change the face of the New Zealand energy industry. Tui-1, which should spud about January 25, will be the most important well drilled in this country for nearly three years, with the potential, with its stratigraphic upside, to contain more gas than Shell New Zealand currently had on its books.
The Diamond Offshore Drilling rig spudded Maari-2, in PEP 38413, last Friday for OMV and Kiwi partner Todd Energy.
OMV New Zealand managing director Wolfgang Zimmer described the Maari-2 appraisal well as "an exciting step in OMV's oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.
"We are looking forward to a productive future, as positive results would likely encourage even more exploration in the area," he said from Perth.
Maari-2 is being drilled to approximately 1500m below the Ocean Bounty's rotary table and will be cored and evaluated, including wireline logging and wireline fluid sampling, then permanently abandoned. The well will not be flow tested.
However, depending on the results, Maari-2 may be sidetracked to investigate another point in the permit area. This will not be determined until the well reaches its final total depth and is evaluated, though.
Meanwhile, Pohokura operator Shell Todd Oil Services has finally reached target depth at the Pohokura South-1B sidetrack well. The well, which is being drilled from an onshore site at Motunui, spudded on September 20, though progress was hindered by various technical problems.
However, the well reached the 5032m along-hole target depth within the Mangahewa reservoir late last week. The Parker Drilling 188 rig and its crew are now preparing to flow test the well after retrieving a lost wireline tool, completing wireline logs and running and cementing the liner.
