Crown Minerals says Bridge - founded last year by former Westech executives Ed Davies (Denver) and Kevin Johnston (Auckland) - has been awarded operatorship of PEP 38491 north of New Plymouth in partnership with Houston-headquartered Transworld Exploration and Production, and Westech Energy New Zealand.

Work program commitments for the first year of the licence include reprocessing 625km of existing 2D seismic, with special emphasis on normalising volcanic velocity effects.

This licence is adjacent to several other relatively new permits - PEP 38485 (Origin Energy, Todd Energy and OMV), PEP 38487 (Todd alone) and PEP 38489 (Pogo Producing Company). Bridge and Transworld - which operates PEP38460 through New Zealand Overseas Petroleum - each hold a 40% interest in PEP 38491, and Westech 20%.

Crown Minerals reports Davies as saying PEP 38616, south of Auckland, will be targeting shallow gas prospects. Operator Bridge holds a 50% interest and Westech 50% in this permit north of the Huntly coal fields.

Bridge has also been awarded PEP 38617 in the Waikato Basin immediately south of Hamilton - again operator Bridge has a 50-50 partnership with Westech and will be targeting coal seam gas.

Bridge now holds nine exploration permits, five onshore, one offshore and three coal seam gas prospects; while Westech has 14 permits - onshore East Coast and Taranaki, and East Coast offshore licence PEP 38333, in partnership with Tap Oil, where the Ocean Patriot rig is scheduled to drill Tawatawa-1 later this year.