The OMS Voyager support vessel is accompanying the Viking II in what will be the first 3D survey over the areas Pogo acquired last February. The vessels are scheduled to spend the next three months shooting 3D data in the company’s three offshore Taranaki licences PEP 38488, PEP 38489 and PEP 38490.
The 7700-tonne Viking II is the biggest and most modern seismic vessel to enter New Zealand waters. The six-year-old vessel, which was only upgraded last year, will also be the first to shoot 3D seismic using eight 4500m-long parallel streamers capable of creating a geophone array 600m wide by 4.5km long.
The first of the two surveys will cover up to 1565 square kilometres of ocean, making it the largest ever acquired in New Zealand waters. It will be over an area bounded by Port Taranaki to the north and Cape Egmont to the south, from 7km off the coast and extending to 50km out to sea.
The second survey is due to start immediately after the first has finished and will be over an area south of Cape Egmont out to northeast of the Maui field.
Pogo NZ said the best-case exploration scenario following the acquisition and interpretation of this seismic will be initial wildcat wells drilled from early 2006.
Industry commentators are impressed by Houston-headquartered Pogo, which has reprocessed and interpreted over 2700 km of existing 2D seismic over its licences and has forward looking work programs.
They say there are some similarities between Pogo and fellow Houston independent (and onshore explorer) Swift Energy, which struck black gold with its first NZ well, Rimu-A1, in late 1999 and has had busy exploration-development programs ever since.
They also say the Pogo acreage is among the most prospective off Taranaki - not for the multi trillion cubic feet gas finds that are more likely to found in deepwater, but for the 1tcf-plus fields that are more likely to be located in the 100m of water covering much of Pogo’s permits.
Pogo has a commitment to drill a well in each of its three Taranaki blocks by the end of 2007.
Pogo has interests in 78 blocks in mainly shallow areas of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as substantial interests in onshore US, offshore Thailand, Hungary and offshore Denmark.
