It is understood the drilling of Patea-1, the first offshore south Taranaki well for the partners for several years, went extremely well, with the deviated shallow target reached in only two weeks. It is not known though what, if any, hydrocarbon shows were encountered.

However, the news may not be that positive as STOS has already released the Parker Drilling 252 rig to Todd Energy, which is now spudding the Patea East-1 well from the same wellsite near the coast and just north of the town of Patea. This second well is again targeting Miocene-aged shallow sands but in a different part of the Patea prospect which Todd 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 was 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.

STOS has not commented on the results, including flow tests, of any of the wells it has drilled in the past year or so, especially Pohokura South-1B which was a deviated re-entry aimed at confirming estimated reserves in the southern end of the possible 1tcf Pohokura field.