Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven yesterday announced the results of the Taranaki-Wanganui bidding round, awarding three new offshore exploration permits to veteran Greymouth Petroleum and to new entrants Highland Exploration and Hugh Green Energy.
Duynhoven said another four exploration permits had been issued outside the bidding round – one to Westech Energy, two to L&M Petroleum, and one to Hugh Green Energy.
Crown Minerals group manager Adam Feeley said five blocks in the Taranaki-Wanganui area and three on the East Coast had not been allocated, either because applications did not meet the required work program standards or because there were no applications.
Work program schedules included the acquisition of new seismic data and the drilling of a wildcat well within the first three years of the five-year permits.
Duynhoven said these new licences, together with the upcoming Great South Basin blocks offer, showed the pace of exploration in New Zealand was continuing to increase.
“New Zealand has an enormous range of exploration potential that is attracting interest from small, independent domestic and international companies through to the super-major oil companies,” said Duynhoven.
The Great South Basin, with about 400,000 square kilometres of acreage on offer, had the scale to attract the largest oil companies, he said.
Greymouth – which owns and operates the onshore Taranaki Turangi, Ngatoro, Kaimiro and Goldie fields – won PEP 38773, a 50sq.km licence covering a coastal block northeast of New Plymouth.
Auckland-based Hugh Green Energy was awarded PEP 38772, a 3775sq.km offshore block adjacent to the Wanganui coast. The privately owned company also acquired PEP 38771, a 3490sq.km onshore block adjacent to its offshore permit.
Highland Exploration, a Colorado-based company affiliated with New Zealand’s Bridge Petroleum, won PEP 38774, a 297sq.km block about 40km north of the Pohokura mining permit.
Westech Energy, a subsidiary of Energy Corporation of America, won PEP 38346, a 5582sq.km onshore block in the Hawkes Bay-Poverty Bay region.
L&M Petroleum, part of the L&M Group, which has interests in petroleum, coal, lignite and gold, won two onshore exploration permits, PEP 38237 for a 969sq.km block, and 238, which covers a 486sq.km block, in the West-Southland Basin.
Meanwhile, Todd Energy has announced it plans to drill the onshore Taranaki Te Kiri-2 well in licence PEP 38749, in September.
Todd exploration manager Ken Hoolihan said a large structure had been identified with objectives in the Miocene-aged Moki Formation and Eocene-aged Kapuni Group.
The well would be a follow-up to Te Kiri-1, which was drilled by former state-owned Petrocorp in 1986.
Todd acquired 90sq.km of 3D seismic data over the area last year.
