The awarding of licence PEP 38344 came after Pogo put in a high-quality bid to Crown Minerals for more than 8000 square kilometres of acreage in the Hawke’s Bay area, Duynhoven said yesterday.
PEP 38344 corresponds to the 8396sq.km Block K in Crown Minerals’ Offshore East Coast Blocks offer that closed earlier this year.
Pogo’s minimum work program commitments require estimated exploration expenditure of up to $US45 million ($A59.9 million) over the initial five-year permit period.
This includes reprocessing 2500km of existing 2D seismic data, acquiring 1500km of new 2D seismic data during the first year and drilling up to two exploration wells in subsequent years.
“It is important for the development of New Zealand’s petroleum industry that production happens within its frontier basins, and the proposed exploration program of work gives justified optimism for the future of this basin,” Duynhoven said.
Crown Minerals group manager Adam Feeley told EnergyReview.net this morning that a second bid for the same East Coast block had been received but Pogo won the permit with its better bid.
“And we will be talking to interested parties during the next few weeks regarding re-allocating the remaining acreage,” he said.
“We expect there will be parties who will come back, either on their own or as part of a joint venture, so we can award more permits in this prospective region.”
Feeley told ERN that Crown Minerals would make allowances for the tight worldwide offshore rig and vessels market when reopening discussions with interested parties.
“We will take these things onboard when talking to companies who previously may have felt nervous about committing to work programs,” he said.
“Hopefully, we will be able to open up another offshore basin to some sustained exploration.”
New York-listed independent Pogo entered New Zealand in early 2004 and subsequently shot the largest, most sophisticated 3D offshore seismic survey program yet seen in New Zealand waters.
It acquired more than 1760sq.km of data over its three offshore Taranaki blocks and is known to be close to committing to drill its first well in the area.
