New Zealand wildcat wells are usually plugged and abandoned when they turn out to be dry holes. Therefore, the abandonment of Karewa should mean no significant hydrocarbon shows were encountered.
However, Conoco drilling manager Steve Butler cautioned against such an assumption. He told EnergyReview.Net today that plugging and abandoning was standard Conoco practice for a wildcat, appraisal wells were tested and then suspended only if worthwhile flow rates were recorded.
He added that Conoco would not be making any official announcements regarding the success or otherwise of Karewa-1, which was drilled off Port Waikato.
Industry commentators, though, say Karewa-1 probably was dry and that the main reason Conoco drilled a second well in the large licence PEP 38602 was to fulfill work program commitments. The permit's second five-year term ends on April 1.
It is known, however, that the drilling operation, which targeted a shallow, late Miocene-aged prospect in the southernmost part of the licence, went very well. The target depth of some 2000m was reached in less than two weeks. Karewa-1 spudded Boxing Day and ConocoPhillips, New Zealand partner Todd Energy and Japan's Inpex Corporation released the Ocean Bounty last Monday night.
The Diamond Offshore Drilling rig is now heading south to the marginal Maari oil discovery in PEP 39413. Operator and Austrian industrial giant OMV, together with Todd Energy, should spud the Maari-2 appraisal well late this week or early next.
Todd Energy believed the Karewa prospect held similarities to Maari, but will obviously be hoping for better results from the appraisal well than the recent wildcat.
The company has said Maari-2, which will be drilled on the southern flank of the field, is aimed at increasing the level of certainty about the size of the field's recoverable reserves in the main oil reservoir, the Miocene-aged Moki formation. Following a successful result, detailed planning to develop the field will begin.
