Tap told the ASX yesterday afternoon that it had taken a 30% equity interest in PEP 38496 from fellow Perth company Western Finder Exploration in the Offshore Taranaki Basin licence. It did not disclose the farm-in price.
The permit is around 500 square kilometres in area and is located immediately north of the 900 bcf Pohokura field, which has a rich gas-to-condensate ratio. The US$600 million Pohokura development project, scheduled for completion late this year, is expected to produce about 50 million barrels of light oil from the Eocene-aged Kapuni Group sands.
Tap managing director Paul Underwood said the PEP 38496 farm-in complemented Tap's existing interests in three offshore permits in New Zealand – PEP 38333 and 38340 off the North Island’s East Coast and PEP 38259 off Canterbury in the South Island.
Underwood said the PEP 38496 licence, which Crown Minerals only awarded just before Christmas, had potential for significant hydrocarbon accumulations. The joint venture would immediately reprocess existing seismic data to delineate drillable prospects in the prospective permit.
According to its website, Crown Minerals initially issued the permit with Finder Exploration as operator.
PEP 38496 joint venture participants are: operator Tap NZ (30%), Finder Exploration (70%).
Meanwhile, at 6am (WST) this morning, the Woollybutt-5 appraisal well had reached a depth of 2,676 metres and was preparing to drill ahead to the planned total depth of 2,875 metres.
Underwood said a core taken in the Upper Barrow Group reservoir sands has been shipped to Perth for detailed analysis.
“Preliminary log information has indicated a hydrocarbon interval of at least 3m in the primary objective at the Upper Barrow,” he said.
“Initial interpretation indicates an oil water contact consistent with the oil water contact in the Woollybutt-3 and –4 wells. Tap’s interpretation is that the Woollybutt-5 well has extended the South Woollybutt Field at least 4km to the south.”
In addition, a second zone of interest – a gross interval of about 12m – has been interpreted from logs and hydrocarbon shows, Tap said.
“This zone is at a similar level to the oil discovery in the Intra Barrow interval in the Woollybutt-3 well,” Underwood said.
Upon reaching the planned total depth, a comprehensive set of evaluation logs will be acquired and interpreted to determine the significance of the results, he added.
“Using these results the joint venture will be in a position to establish the optimum development plan for the South Woollybutt oil field, possibly over two zones,” he said.
The Woollybutt field is currently producing oil at a controlled rate of about 21,000 barrels of oil per day, following the start of production from the Scalybutt-1H well.
Partners in WA-25-L are: Eni Australia (65%); Mobil Australia Resource (20%); and Tap West (15%).
