“It is exciting to see a New Zealand owned and operated exploration and production company make a discovery of this kind, which is significant in terms of its short-term contribution to the country’s energy needs, and its medium-term implications for ongoing exploration in onshore Taranaki,” Duynhoven said yesterday afternoon.
The Turangi-1 well, which produced from the Mangahewa formation of the Eocene-aged Kapuni Group, had estimated proven and probable (P50) recoverable reserves of 144 petajoules of gas and 4.8 million barrels of associated condensate. This makes Turangi the country’s third-largest onshore gas discovery behind the Kapuni and McKee fields, according to Duynhoven.
“The discovery reinforces the geological prospectivity of Kapuni Group targets in the Taranaki Basin and demonstrates the importance of continuing exploration in onshore Taranaki to meet our short-term energy needs,” he said.
Duynhoven said while offshore exploration for new major fields remained critical to New Zealand’s long-term energy needs, the government also recognised the importance of smaller onshore developments.
“Turangi is a prime example of how quickly an onshore discovery in Taranaki can be brought into production,” he said.
“Discoveries of this kind have an enormously positive impact in providing New Zealand with more time for offshore exploration as well as for developing a wider range of sustainable energy alternatives.”
Duynhoven said he had asked officials to prepare a paper on possible initiatives for hastening further petroleum exploration and production to supplement those initiatives put in place in early 2004.
Crown Minerals has granted a production permit, PMP 38161, over nearly all of Greymouth’s former exploration licence PEP 38762, enabling Greymouth to plan for long-term field development.
Company chief operating officer John Sturgess said development plans for Turangi were well advanced and Greymouth expected to be selling specification gas from later this month at initial delivery rates of 10 terajoules per day.
