Recent newspaper advertisements have called for a petroleum industry manager to establish and manage the New Zealand office in Wellington for an unidentified Australian company.

Initially rumours had raised such names as Horizon Oil or Origin Energy, which are both active in New Zealand, although it's only a "hop" across the Tasman for those east coast companies.

Tap Oil, however, seems an ideal candidate, with its newly-acquired offshore Canterbury Basin licence (in conjunction with AWE) complementing its extensive onshore Taranaki acreage, which includes a 30% stake in the soon-to-be-developed Kahili gas-condensate discovery.

Being from Perth it makes more sense in going to the expense of setting up an office in New Zealand that it does for an east coast Australian firm which would experience far less travelling time.

Tap managing director Paul Underwood would not confirm his company's transTasman expansion plans, however. "I think we will make no comment at this stage, other than to confirm our commitment to New Zealand and that it's nice to see more Australian companies going there," he told EnergyReview.Net.