Operator Shell Todd Oil Services spudded the Patea-1 well for the partners on Saturday afternoon from the onshore licence PEP 38760 but will deviate the well into the adjacent licence PEP 38737, according to Todd oil and gas operations manager Richard Crowe.

STOS is using the Parker Drilling 252 rig to drill Patea-1 and intends deviating it perhaps 1500m or so, into shallow Miocene-aged sandstones within the Patea prospect, which Todd Energy believes straddles three permits PEP 38737, 760 and 719, and appears to be separated into eastern and western parts by a subsurface basement ridge.

The Patea-1 location is interpreted to be on the same structural closure, but updip, of some of Swift Energy New Zealand's Kauri wells, which have already flowed oil from the shallow Manutahi sandstones.

After Patea-1, Todd Energy is going it alone to drill the Patea East- 1 well, from the same drilling site but not necessarily using the same rig, to test the shallow oil potential of the eastern part of the Patea prospect, with the target zone predicted to be found at a depth of about 1000m-1100m.