Shell NZ spokesman Simon King told Energyreview.Net that Patea-1 proved to be a dry hole and been plugged and abandoned.
Although he gave no further details, it is believed the well - drilled in onshore licence PEP 38760 but deviated into the adjacent offshore licence PEP 38737 - reached a total along hole depth of about 1640m without encountering any significant hydrocarbon shows.
The Parker Drilling 252 rig is now working for Todd Energy drilling the Patea East-1 well from the same well site and 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.
Patea East-1 is the first well Todd has drilled without Shell in almost 50 years, but it certainly won't the last given this week's announcement by Royal Dutch Shell that it is suspending exploration in New Zealand for at least the next year.
It is also looking increasingly unlikely that Todd and Shell will get to celebrate any "golden" exploration moments in 2005, apart from their continued joint Pohokura gas field development with OMV Petroleum.
