Perth-headquartered Tap yesterday evening (New Zealand time) said the Ocean Patriot had drilled to the programmed intermediate depth of around 1172m and that intermediate wireline logging and a seismic checkshot survey were being conducted.

“Being only the second well in this area, this logging was planned to obtain more accurate information on the seismic interpreted depths prior to entering a possible high pressured zone,” said Tap.

Following the availability of the logging and checkshot information, the well would continue drilling ahead before a second logging run was completed, probably late today.

The Ocean Patriot is likely to hit the 1500m target depth by the weekend. The Tawatawa prospect is a four-way dip closure of up to 40 sq.km capable of containing up to two tcf of gas and perhaps 200 million barrels of oil-condensate.