Crown Minerals has quoted Bridge executive director Ed Davies as saying Bridge planned to drill the Radnor-2 appraisal well in PEP 38752 near Stratford to follow up its Radnor-1 gas-condensate discovery of last September. Radnor-1 flowed gas at 6.7 mmscf/d and oil at 360 bopd during testing.
Davies said the Radnor production station, at the wellsite just north of Stratford, had been completed and Radnor-1 started delivering gas in mid-April to Methanex New Zealand’s Waitara Valley methanol plant as part of long-term production testing. Methanex NZ, which wholly funded Radnor-1, would not be funding Radnor-2, but would be purchasing any gas for its Waitara plant.
The exact timing of drilling Radnor-2 well depended on the availability of a rig capable to drilling 5000m or more, down to the Eocene-aged Kapuni sands. Radnor-2 would be drilled from the same pad but to a target depth of 4800m, about 440 m deeper than that of Radnor-1.
Bridge holds 66.67% equity in and operates the Radnor licence PEP 38752, along with Denver-based partner Westech Energy (33.33%).
Davies said two shallow Miocene-aged Mount Messenger wells were also planned - Richmond-1 well in PEP 38745, immediately west of the Mangahewa field, and an as-yet-unnamed well in PEP 38751 near Inglewood - to be drilled in July.
Meanwhile, Westech Energy New Zealand plans to sell its small onshore Taranaki Windsor gas field and its interests in nearby licences PEP 38732 (100%) and PEP 38745 (33.33%).
Westech discovered the small (about 4PJ) Windsor gas field in PEP 38732 during 2000 and the similar-sized Surrey gas field (PEP 38734) about two years ago. While Westech managed to sell Surrey gas to NGC, it failed to do a deal for Windsor, which was further away from existing pipeline infrastructure.
Denver-based spokesman Dennis McGowan told EnergyReview.net that the decision to sell a portion of the company’s Taranaki assets should not be interpreted as any signal Westech was thinking of leaving New Zealand.
“This limited divestiture is simply a business decision made to allow us to focus our attention on the many other activities that we have in New Zealand,” he said. “These properties are not considered essential to our core plans.”
Westech would retain its interests in Radnor, Surrey, and in licences PEP 38752, 38767 and PEP 38491 in the Taranaki Basin, as well as the East Coast licences PEP 38329, 38340 and 38333. The company had also recently acquired coalbed methane blocks PEP 38612, 613, 616, and 617.
“If anything, we have increased our level of activity in New Zealand,” McGowan said.
