The Tui Area partners yesterday afternoon said the semi-submersible Ocean Patriot rig had completed the fourth and final Tui development well, Pateke-3H, as a producer and was lifting anchors to move southwest to drill Hector-1 in licence PEP 38483.

The Ocean Patriot is likely to spud Hector-1 over the weekend. The Hector prospect has the potential to contain an estimated 60 million barrels of oil.

Following Hector-1, the rig will move back to the Tui mining licence PMP 38158 to drill Taranui-1, the second near-field appraisal well after the suspended Tieke-1 well drilled late last year.

The next scheduled exploration well is west of Tui – the West Cape-1 wildcat in licence PEP 38481 – possibly followed by the Kopuwai-1 well just north of Tui in adjacent licence PEP 38482.

First oil from the Tui, Amokura and Pateke oil pools is likely in a week or so.

AWE recently applied for a second five-year term for PEP 38481, with the partners remaining the same. It has also applied for a second term for the adjoining PEP 38482, though on a 100% basis. Both licences expire next month.

The Tui partners are operator AWE (42.5%), Mitsui E&P NZ (35%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (12.5%), Pan Pacific Petroleum (10%). The PEP 38483 partners are operator AWE NZ (44.317%), Mitsui (22.728%), NZOG (18.864%), and Pan Pacific (14.091%).

The present PEP 38481-482 partners are operator AWE NZ (40%), Shell NZ (20%), OMV NZ (25%) and Todd Petroleum Mining (15%).