Wellington-based Austral believes the Radnor prospect, in PEP 38752, is the northern part of the same hydrocarbon-bearing structure from which the earlier Cardiff-1 well flowed gas and condensate in the early 1990s for a Shell-led consortium.

Radnor-1 has been so successful, flowing up to 6.7mmscf/d of gas and 360 barrels of condensate on a 20/64 inch choke, that operator Bridge Petroleum and partner Westech Energy are already planning to have commercial gas flowing north to Methanex from early 2005.

Austral and its PEP 38738 partners, including Genesis Energy which is funding Cardiff-2 in exchange for all gas produced from the deep Eocene-aged Kapuni formation, are scheduled to take about six weeks to reach the 4900m TD, with flow testing planned to follow in December through February.

The well is designed to establish producible gas within a structure which, in the event of success at Cardiff-2, may become a 1tcf find when subsequent development, including further drilling, is completed.

Commentators are enthusiastic about the prospects of finding this much new uncommitted gas. “We await with excitement the results of this one”, a commentator told EnergyReview.Net.

Meanwhile, Greymouth Petroleum is due to today spud its Tiwakawaka-1 well in the rugged eastern Taranaki hinterland using a specially built rig.

Tiwakawaka-1 will be only the second well in the area (PEP 38739) and follows on from the 1964 Kiore-1 well drilled by Shell, BP Todd. Greymouth has said Tiwakawaka was identified as a result of last year’s seismic acquisition programme over part of the large 956 sqkm permit and that formations and hence target depths cannot be predicted with any accuracy.

Commentators say Greymouth may be targeting shallow trapped pockets of hydrocarbons, “leakage” from existing fields, as most of PEP 38739 lies to the east of the Taranaki Fault with no source rock underneath.