Wellington-headquartered Austral said this morning Ratanui-1, in licence PEP 38741, reached a total depth of 2120m on Tuesday and that the targeted Miocene-aged Mount Messenger and upper Moki formation sands were intersected over several intervals.

However, wireline logging of the well, which was completed yesterday, and associated seismic mapping, did not indicate any economic hydrocarbons.

As a result, Ratanui-1 will be plugged and abandoned.

Austral added that the remaining potential in the permit centred around the deeper Eocene-aged Kapuni group of sandstones, in particular the Waitoriki deep gas prospect that had been mapped by 3D seismic last year.

The Ratanui duster will also be a blow for TAG, which had been hoping success at Ratanui-1 would provide a reserve base sufficient to warrant economic development of Ratanui and the nearby small Supplejack gas-condensate find, also in PEP 38741, which was discovered about a year ago.

TAG president Drew Cadenhead commented: “The target Mount Messenger Sands at Ratanui-1 were well-developed but interpreted as being water-wet.

“The joint venture can now decide what course of action to take to determine the commercial feasibility in developing the offsetting Supplejack gas-condensate discovery.”

The PEP 38741 partners are operator Austral (55%) and TAG (45%).