In its March quarterly report released to the ASX on Friday, AWE said the first well was scheduled to be Cutter-1 in licence PEP 38259 – the first offshore Canterbury Basin well for about 20 years.
Farminees Claire Energy and Beach Petroleum are funding AWE’s 25% share of the expected costs. The Cutter-1 well is to test the hydrocarbon potential of a prospect located in relatively shallow water, about 200km south-west of Christchurch. It has the potential to hold about 70-80 million barrels of recoverable oil.
Another wildcat well, Hector-1 in offshore Taranaki licence PEP 38483, is to be next, followed by the four Tui Area development wells and two exploration wells, Tieke-1 and Taranui-1, in the Tui lease PMP 38158.
Hector-1 is targeting a structural closure at the Eocene-aged Kapuni C sands level in a similar setting to the Tui Area fields (Tui, Amokura and Pateke). It has the potential to hold 50Mbbls of recoverable oil.
The West Cape-1 exploration well, in nearby licence PEP 39481, scheduled to be the last well drilled in the program, is due to spud in the second quarter of 2007.
Fellow Tui Area and PEP 38483 partner, New Zealand Oil & Gas, said in its March quarterly report that it would be involved in seven of the nine wells drilled.
NZOG chairman Tony Radford said this would be “the largest continuous drilling program ever undertaken by NZOG and represents a significant investment in the future growth of NZOG at a time of high oil prices”.
NZOG also said the formal final investment decision (FID) for the Kupe gas-condensate field off south Taranaki was scheduled to be made by the Kupe joint venture, headed by operator Origin Energy, at the end of June.
The Tui (PMP 38158) partners are operator AWE NZ (42.5%), Mitsui E&P NZ (35%), NZOG (12.5%) and Pan Pacific Petroleum (10%).
The PEP 38481-482 partners are operator AWE NZ (40%), Shell NZ (through Energy Western Holdings) (20%), OMV NZ (25%) and Todd Petroleum Mining (15%).
The PEP 38483 partners are operator AWE NZ (44.317%), NZOG (18.864%), Mitsui E&P NZ (22.728%) and Pan Pacific (14.091%).
The PEP 38259 (Cutter) partners are operator Tap NZ (40%), AWE NZ (25%), Beach Petroleum (20%) and Claire Energy (15%).
The Kupe partners are operator Origin Energy (50%), Genesis Energy (31%), NZOG (15%) and Mitsui E&P NZ (4%).
