Crown Minerals has awarded OMV New Zealand and NZOG the new 1682 sq km licence PEP 38484 and, while OMV will act as operator, both have taken a 50% stake in the acreage.
NZOG general manager Gordon Ward said targets in the permit included Miocene-aged shelf sands in structural closures and also large stratigraphic traps.
Some 400 km of new seismic will be acquired and integrated with existing data, with the objective of firming up one or more prospects for drilling next year.
In late 2002 exploration manager Eric Matthews said refined data analysis over the Gamma area - within both the new licence and the former larger PEP 38472 - had revealed the "Ray" lead that had the potential to be a massive oil target, up to 500 million barrels of oil.
The current permit is a smaller area than that held by the two companies when they relinquished PEP 38472 late last year.
Meanwhile, Swift Energy’s Kauri-E4 appraisal well has test flowed gas at a rate of approximately 4.0 million cubic feet per day and crude oil-condensate at 400 barrels per day from the Tariki sands in its PEP 38719 onshore south Taranaki licence.
The Tariki sand encountered at Kauri-E4 was approximately 570m up-dip and over 5 km from the Tariki sand discovery at Swift’s first oil discovery in late 1999 with the Rimu-A1 wildcat.
