Company chief executive Dave Bennett told EnergyReview.Net from Wellington that the first two of perhaps eight wells would be the Wawiri-1 well in licence PEP 38753 and Bluff-1 in PEP 38746. Drilling was scheduled to start in August.
Bennett also said Indo-Pacific had made very good progress towards finalising a preferred development option for the Kahili gas-condensate discovery in PEP 38736. Two proposals had been short-listed for the Kahili pipeline and field development and analysed, with further project optimisations being identified. Indo-Pacific would make a development recommendation to the joint venture parties within the next few weeks and a final decision was anticipated to be made next month, with first production from early 2004.
"We are delighted with the excellent quality of the proposals received, and the clear enthusiasm of the bidders to bring gas and condensate on stream to market at earliest opportunity," said Bennett.
He added that the Cheal-1 re-entry operation, in PEP 38738, was progressing well with the recently imported truck-mounted rig and that the producing zone should be perforated by Thursday. A short term clean-up flow would be conducted and the well suspended, pending the arrival of production test equipment from other operators. Both oil and gas had been observed in the Cheal-1 wellbore.
Last week Perth-based Tap announced details of its Taranaki program, its first major initiative since acquiring significant interests in five Indo-Pacific operated licences. It said the first well would be Bluff-1, followed by Wawiri-1. The Waitoriki-1 well is also scheduled to be drilled late this year, targeting the deeper Kapuni in licence PEP 38741.
Tap managing director Paul Underwood said a further four or five wells could be drilled onshore Taranaki in early 2004.
Today Indo-Pacific also announced it had entered into an arrangement with Singapore-based Krystal Corporation Pte Ltd, whereby Krystal would fund 26.4% of the Wawiri-1 well, as well as 26.4% of the cost of the Akama deep gas test, to earn a 20% interest in PEP 38453.
Bennett told ERN that Akama was a deep-gas feature identified by seismic, which looked similar to, but better than, the nearby Huinga and Makino prospects.
The Wawiri prospect was defined as a fault block structure with an associated seismic amplitude anomaly, situated adjacent to, but at shallower depth than Swift Energy's Waihapa-Ngaere oil fields. The Bluff prospect had been identified on 3D seismic as a similar target adjacent to Todd Energy's McKee oil field.
Bennett said that given success at either prospect, pipeline tie-ins to adjacent production facilities could be readily achieved.
The Kaimata 3D seismic survey, acquired earlier this year between the Ngatoro oil field and the McKee-Tariki fields, was being processed by Kelman Geophysical in Calgary. The survey covered the deeper Waitoriki and Dudley structures, as well as shallow Mt Messenger targets, for possible future drilling.
