The Perth-headquartered company says the first of possible 11-plus Aussie wells is expected to spud next month, while its six-well kiwi campaign is scheduled to kick off before the end of this month, subject to rig availability and joint venture approvals.

The most significant New Zealand well and the only offshore venture is Galleon South-1, which is scheduled to be drilled mid-2006, targeting a possible 2 tcf gas and 100 million barrels condensate prospect. Tap’s onshore Taranaki wells - Hihi-1, Miromiro-1, Hursthouse-1, Takahe-1 and Kakariki-1 - are all targeting Miocene-aged Mt Messenger-Moki prospects, containing 1-4 million barrels of oil.

Its Aussie program includes a mixture of onshore-offshore wells, starting with the offshore Carnarvon Basin Boojum-1 well, west of Tap's Airlie Island facilities and targeting a possible 10 million barrels of oil.

Other wells include Cyrano-2 (east of Airlie Island, 8 million barrels and 100PJ), Woollybutt South-1 (Carnarvon Basin, 15 mmbbls), Lauda-1 (west of Woollybutt, 50 mmbbls), Maier-1 (west of Woollybutt, 30 mmbbls), Jane-1 (south of Tap’s Varanus Island, 5 mmbbls), Snoz-1 (west of Stag, 100 mmbbls), Amulet-1 (40 mmbbls), Kultarr-1 (15 mmbbls), Vesta-1 (20 mmbbls), and Gats-1 (30 mmbbls).

Tap said two large deep targets might also be drilled by the Harriet joint venture, which was finalising details for 2005 and was likely to program at least a further 10 wells, with several deeper Biggada oil and gas-condensate prospects. The joint venture was planning to contract a second jack-up rig in the first quarter of 2005 to escalate the level of drilling activity within Harriet.