Wellington-headquartered Austral – which holds operates PEP 38738 for both shallow and deep gas – says a four-month production test is scheduled to begin May 5.

The Cardiff-2A well was completed last month and the Parker Drilling 246 Rig moved offsite, but testing has been delayed by a lack of available testing and fraccing equipment.

Austral believes the Cardiff prospect, in PEP 38738, could contain 1tcf or more of deep gas at the Eocene-aged Kapuni level. Good quality logs and some gas shows were encountered in several Kapuni sands – particularly the McKee, K1A and K3E (the main producer at the adjacent Kapuni field) – during drilling.

Last year major downstream player Genesis Energy funded the drilling and testing of Cardiff-2, to a cap of NZ$15 million, in return for acquiring 40% equity in the deep petroleum rights in the permit and the right to purchase all gas from those reserves.

In the same licence, the fourth jet-pump test at the Cheal-A4 well further north in the same licence has started, testing hydrocarbon flows from the shallow Miocene-aged Urenui sands. Over 22,000 barrels of oil from the deeper Miocene-aged Mount Messenger sands flowed during the third jet pump test.

PEP 38738 shallow partners are: Austral Pacific Energy (operator 36.5%), Cheal Petroleum (30.5%), International Resource Management Corporation (33%).

PEP 38738 deep partners are: Austral (operator 25.1%), Genesis Energy (40%), Cheal Petroleum (15.1%), IRMC (19.8%).