PEP 38748 partner Austral Pacific Energy says on its website today that plug and abandon operations are in progress at the Kakariki-1 wellsite after only eight days drilling.

Tap said from Perth earlier this month that Kakariki-1 had spudded and would take about 11 days to drill to a total depth of 1825m, targeting oil plays within the Mt Messenger and Moki sandstones.

Tap operates the licence and holds a 50% interest, along with partners Austral Pacific and Magellan Petroleum (25% equity each).

Tap has participated in the Hihi-1 well (PEP 38748), Miromiro-1 (PEP 38765), Hursthouse-1 (PEP 38745) and now Kakariki – all of which targeted shallow Mt Messenger-Moki prospects containing 1-4 million barrels of oil, and all of which have been plugged and abandoned.

Tap must be hoping for better with its last two scheduled shallow onshore Taranaki wells – Takahe-1 in PEP 38744, due to spud in April, and Supplejack-1 in PEP 38741, to spud in June.

The Perth-based players’ attention must also be turning to its upcoming Barque-1 well that is scheduled to be drilled mid-2005 in offshore Canterbury Basin licence PEP 38259 and targeting a “very large” prospect which Tap says could contain up to 5 tcf of gas and 500 million barrels of liquids.