New Zealand Oil & Gas today said the semi-submersible Ocean Bounty drilling rig was now over 2256m down towards the 3700m TD within the Eocene-aged Kapuni F sands which “should be reached within the next week”.

NZOG also said, as briefly stated earlier, that the joint venture partners - headed by operator and Transworld Oil subsidiary New Zealand Overseas Petroleum - were targeting a combined development centred on Amokura, with Tui, Pateke and the yet-to-be-drilled Kiwi-1 well all being within a 5km radius of Amokura.

NZOG’s quarterly report also said an upgraded seismic picture - the result of an additional 384km of data acquired over the Gamma and X-Ray prospects in PEP 38484 during late May - was expected to lead to drilling of at least one wild-cat well in the first half of 2005. These prospects are Miocene structural and stratigraphic targets in the area immediately west of the Kupe Field.

Meanwhile, NZOG said its subsidiary Pike River Coal Company and the Department of Conservation were in the final stages of a detailed access agreement to the West Coast Pike River coal field, for which conditional government approval was granted last March.

During the past two months, South-East Asian and Brazilian steel mills and coke makers had issued long-term (up to 5 years) letters of intent to purchase over one million tonnes of the high-quality, hard metallurgical coking coal to be produced by the Pike River mine, in which NZOG will hold a 71% interest.

Although prices had yet to be negotiated, coal commentators were forecasting that 2005 should see another substantial rise in annual contract prices to US$70-$80 per tonne, about 30% higher than in 2003.