Chief operating officer John Sturgess told EnergyReview.net from Auckland that the Parker Drilling Rig 246 spudded Turangi-1 on Thursday and would take several weeks to reach the minimum targeted depth of 3850m within the Mangahewa sands of the Eocene-aged Kapuni Group.

Sturgess has previously said that once the Mangahewa sands had been evaluated the well could be deepened to test the deeper Kaimiro Formation to a targeted depth of about 4500m.

He has also said PEP 38762 sits between the near-shore Pohokura gas-condensate field and the onshore Mangahewa deep gas and McKee oil fields to the south-east, and lies along the same inversion trend as these. The now mothballed Methanex Motunui methanol complex is located to the north-west corner of PEP 38762 and main gas transmission pipelines bisect the permit.

Other explorers regard PEP 38762 and surrounding acreage as prospective, despite the often-encountered low porosity and permeability of the Mangahewa sands.

One such explorer is Houston-headquartered Swift Energy, which last week outlined its 2005 New Zealand exploration program to the Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans.

Swift Energy’s slide presentation mentioned the three wells scheduled to be drilled in conjunction with Mighty River Power in the Trapper, Goss and Tawa prospects within the Rimu-Kauri and Tawn fields.

There is also a fourth mentioned, Mangahewa West in PEP 38742, which Swift Energy operates in conjunction with Kapuni ammonia urea plant owner Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

Swift and Ballance earlier this year drilled the unsuccessful shallow Karaka-A1 well and it is understood Swift and Ballance may decide to evaluate the deep gas potential of their permit by drilling the Mangahewa West-A1 well into those Mangahewa sands later this year.