The Swire Pacific-owned vessel berthed at Port Taranaki for provisions and bunkering before heading out to shoot more than 10,000 kilometres of 2D seismic over four offshore geological basins for 10 different operators.

Norwegian-based company Multiwave has chartered the vessel and party chief Ketil Glimsjo told EnergyReview.net that he expected the total progam to take at least 100 days, or longer if there was bad weather or many shark attacks

Glimsjo said he was hoping for fewer shark attacks this time around, referring to the six or so attacks the Pacific Titan encountered while surveying almost a year ago off the East Coast for Ministry of Economic Development unit Crown Minerals.

On one occasion a shark severed a section of a 12km-long seismic cable, delaying surveying while a chase boat retrieved the severed section and the Pacific Titan moved to calmer waters for the cable re-attachment.

“They were probably Mako sharks, which are very territorial and can be very aggressive, particularly if they think you have intruded into their piece of ocean,” Glimsjo said.

The Titan’s first survey would be for downstream New Zealand energy player Contact Energy and was expected to take about eight days for 800km of seismic.

Contact Energy, one of the country’s two largest natural gas users, has 100% equity in licence PEP 39493 and is exploring in own right, trying to ensure it has enough fuel to run its existing and planned gas-fired power stations in Auckland and Taranaki into the next decade.

Glimsjo said the second survey would be a 1000km shoot for Todd Petroleum Mining. Although he did not know the licences involved, they are believed to be PEP 38602, which includes the Karewa discovery on the edge of the Taranaki-Northland basins, and PEP 38486 and 38487.

It is believed other offshore Taranaki work includes a survey over the OMV-operated block PEP 38485.

The Pacific Titan is then due to head to the East Coast where it will be working for Tap Oil off the Wairarapa coast in licences PEP 38333 and 38340, and for US private company Discovery Geo in the Cook Strait licence PEP 38343.

The Titan is also scheduled to acquire data in the Canterbury Basin for Green Gate in Pegasus Bay north of Christchurch (PEP 38260), for operator Austral Pacific and Canadian-listed company TAG Oil in the Canterbury Bight north of Timaru (PEP 38259), and for Origin Energy in PEP 38262, which stretches from Banks Peninsula to south of Dunedin.

Further south, the vessel is scheduled to acquire 3300km of data in the northeastern section of the Great South Basin for Crown Minerals’ survey DUN06, an integral component of the government’s exploration incentives aimed at further stimulating and accelerating exploration in areas outside the Taranaki Basin.

The Titan will also be shooting seismic in the Solander Basin west of Stewart Island, in L&M Petroleum’s licence PEP 38228.