Chief operating officer John Sturgess told PetroleumNews.net that Bonus Drilling Rig#1 had spudded the well in licence PEP 38739 last week.
“We are currently at a depth of about 450 metres, having run casing,” Sturgess said.
“The basement even sticks out in places out there and we are not planning to drill much of that.”
Therefore target depths could not be predicted with any great accuracy, he said
Greymouth’s first exploration effort in eastern Taranaki was the Tiwakawaka-1 well, which was drilled to about 772m in late 2004 but failed to find any significant hydrocarbons.
Omoana-1 is the fourth well to be drilled in eastern Taranaki. The others were Tiwakawaka-1, the early 2007 Mangamingi-1 well drilled by Canadian listed junior TAG Oil, and Kiore-1 drilled by Shell, BP and Todd in 1964.