“We had some very solid oil shows and are casing the well, as we think the well is worth further testing,” TAG president Drew Cadenhead told PetroleumNews.net this morning.
“Mangamingi-1 has confirmed our theory that oil has migrated through the underlying wedge of thrusted basement sediments and has accumulated in the overlying shallow Miocene sediments in this under-explored eastern region of the Taranaki Basin.”
Mangamingi-1 reached a total measured depth of 1871m (vertical depth 1550m) over the weekend and, after evaluating drilling data, including logging, TAG decided to case the well in preparation for further testing.
Cadenhead had earlier told PNN that TAG saw potential in several shallow Miocene-aged sands – the conventional Kiore sands, similar to those found in Swift Energy’s Kauri oil field to the south, and the Urenui and Mount Messenger sands, the producing formations at the nearby Cheal oil field that TAG and operator Austral Pacific Energy own. TAG was also keen to test the unconventional potential in the fractured Murihiku Basement.
Today Cadenhead said Mangamingi-1 had oil shows in the cuttings over “a very large interval, which is very uncommon in Taranaki”. While not continuous, there were shows over all the targeted formations, including the fractured basement. There were also oil shows in the sidewall cores taken.
He added that TAG would now initiate a testing program, depending on equipment availability, over the next two weeks. That program should include perforating a couple of zones where sidewall cores had been taken.
Mangamingi-1 is only the third well to be drilled in the eastern Taranaki hinterland and follows the 1964 Kiore-1 well, drilled by Shell BP and Todd, and Tiwakawaka-1 drilled in 2004 by Greymouth Petroleum – both of which were unsuccessful.
“It seems that too far east or west and there are no hydrocarbons,” Cadenhead said.
“However, we seem to have struck the hydrocarbon belt in the middle.”
TAG, which holds 100% equity in the licence PEP 38758, conducted geochemical sampling and a 35km 2D seismic survey over part of the permit last January to help pinpoint likely zones of interest and the best drilling site.
