Todd Energy managing director Richard Tweedie confirmed the partners’ plans to PetroleumNews.net.

“Yes, I am sure that’s the intention; we have licence obligations and a commitment to drill,” he said from Wellington.

The partners will drill Moana-1, a wildcat well, in licence PEP 38485 on the edge of the Taranaki-Northland basins.

The partners hold equal shares in the OMV-operated permit.

Earlier this year Tweedie told PetroleumNews.net. that the joint venture might use the jack-up rig Ensco 107 to drill Moana-1, but not until it had completed the Kupe and Maari development and exploration wells for operators Origin and OMV and their respective joint ventures during late 2007 and early 2008.

However, those plans had now been brought forward with the availability of a spare slot in the Ocean Patriot drilling program, he added.

Tweedie said he was not sure if Moana-1 would be drilled before or after US independent Pogo Producing Company used the Patriot to drill one well.

Pogo Asia-Pacific regional manager Gerry Morton recently said the company planned to drill the Kanuka-1 well, in PEP 38488, targeting mid-Miocene submarine fans in the Kanuka prospect northwest of New Plymouth.

He added that Pogo was keen to drill a second well in its three offshore Taranaki permits but it had not yet completed its analysis of available prospects.

Morton said then that Pogo had contracted enough time for the Ocean Patriot to drill two wells, but that Pogo might use a jack-up rig for the second well.

A recent Pogo website presentation indicated one of the prospects being considered was the Toro prospect in PEP 38489, just a few kilometres off New Plymouth.

The Pacific Titan seismic vessel recently finished shooting about 150 square kilometres of 3D "ribbon" seismic over near-shore parts of PEP 38489 for Pogo.

Pogo operates and holds a 50% interest in PEPs 38488-490, along with government-owned Mighty River Power (25%) and Mitsui E&P Australia (25%).