All three proposed wells are located within the Waiau permit PEP 38226 in Southland.
L&M, which in January started trading on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges, said it had contracted the Bonus Rig-2 to mobilise to its first drilling location on or about April 10.
Due to spud 10 days later, the onshore Eastern Bush-1 exploration well is targeting a potential 253 million barrels of in-place oil in the Eocene Beaumont Formation. It is expected to take three weeks to drill to a total depth of 2520m.
From there, the rig will move to the Dean prospect, also in the Waiau permit, to drill the second well to a planned total depth of 2100m.
L&M has the option of drilling a third well at the Merton Creek prospect to a total depth of 2500m.
