Wellington-based Austral today said the Parker Drilling Rig 246 was being rigged up on the site, just south of Stratford, and was expected to spud the well on or about October 23. The well was planned to reach its 4900m target depth in December, with flow-testing planned through to February.

Austral chief executive Dave Bennett has previously said the Cardiff field, in licence PEP 38738, has the potential to contain over 1tcf of gas, from mainly within the Eocene-aged Kapuni group.

Drilling operations are now underway at the nearby Cheal-A site, with the truck-mounted SPDL rig spudding Cheal-A4 last Monday. The well, which is over 400m down, is being deviated northeastwards to intersect better quality reservoir within the Miocene-aged Mt Messenger sandstones midway between the Cheal-A3X and Cheal-2 intersections.

The SPDL rig has also installed a permanent wellhead on the Cheal-A3X well for renewed production testing. Cheal-A3X flowed at an average rate of 300 bopd during July.