Operations manager Bruce Morris told EnergyRevew.Net this morning that Stent-1 had reached the 2710m target depth without striking significant oil or gas shows in the shallow Pliocene-aged Matemateaonga or deeper Miocene-aged Mt Messenger sands.
Stent-1 had been targeting the onshore part of an onshore-offshore structure identified by recent seismic. Though Morris declined to comment further, it is known Discovery boss Bernett Martin is not discouraged by having to abandon a fourth well since his Texas company entered the New Zealand exploration scene in 1996.
Previous coastal wells included Warea-1 (2000), the Warea-1A re-entry (2001) and last year’s Rahotu-1.
Martin last week told ERN that New Zealand was a key overseas operating arena for Discovery - along with Queensland, Thailand and Hungary.
As well as PEP 38722, the adjoining offshore licence PEP 38471, and two other small onshore Taranaki blocks, Discovery held over 3.5 million hectares of onshore East Coast acreage (PEP 38341-342) plus the significant offshore north Taranaki permit PEP 39479.
