The government-owned company today confirmed it was joining with US-based Pogo, which is now poised to start its first New Zealand drilling campaign.
MRP upstream ventures manager John Bay said MRP had taken 50% equity in each of Pogo’s offshore licences – PEP 38488, 38489 and 38490 – but declined to comment further.
There are also rumours that Pogo has acquired a drilling slot for one or two wells in PEPs 38488-490 at the end of the Ocean Patriot’s offshore New Zealand drilling program. Pogo investment relations vice president Clay Jeansonne could not be contacted to confirm the rumours.
The semi-submersible rig is due to drill nine or so wells in the offshore Canterbury and offshore Taranaki basins for a number of joint ventures from September.
MRP’s first move upstream was in March last year – an agreement with Swift Energy New Zealand to explore for deep gas (Eocene-aged or older) in Swift’s onshore Taranaki fields.
The first well in that program, Tawa-B1 in onshore Taranaki licence PEP 38719, was plugged and abandoned late last year, while earlier this year the second, Trapper-A1, struck hydrocarbons and the third, Goss-A1, is being evaluated after having reached its target depth.
Then later last year MRP moved offshore, taking a 50% chunk of Swift’s new offshore Taranaki licence PEP 38495, containing the promising Kaheru prospect, over which 3D seismic was shot last summer.
MRP’s second offshore move was earlier this year when it took over Bridge Petroleum’s 40% equity interest in licence PEP 38491 offshore Taranaki.
MRP’s involvement in gas comes through its ownership of the 122MW Southdown cogeneration plant in south Auckland and its Mercury Energy subsidiary retailing gas and electricity mainly through the upper North Island.
MRP was one of the last New Zealand downstream players to move upstream but it has acquired a significant diversified portfolio of exploration assets in only 16 months. It participates fully as a joint venture partner, undertaking technical work as well as funding exploration, in contrast to other downstream players such as Methanex New Zealand that have been involved primarily in providing capital only.
