Crown Minerals group manager Adam Feeley told EnergyReview.net that the case had been adjourned for the filing of affidavits and documents following Tuesday’s teleconference regarding scheduling and the likely time required for a hearing.

“However, the next material step may not be for many months, as the High Court is very busy with other civil cases,” Feeley said.

ExxonMobil has asked the High Court to rule on the wrangle involving seismic data shot about two years ago by a Fugro-Geoteam survey for the partners in the former Bounty Oil-operated licence PEP 38215. ExxonMobil later acquired the licence.

The dispute centres on Crown Minerals’ demands that ExxonMobil make available all PEP 38215 data as usually is required by joint ventures that relinquish licences or have them revoked. But the oil giant says it was never a partner in the permit and is therefore not legally required to surrender the seismic data it reportedly paid $US3.2 million ($A4.5 million) for last year.

Feeley declined to say why Crown Minerals did not buy the disputed data from Fugro, using part of the government’s $NZ15 million ($A12.5 million) allocation for offshore seismic acquisition, to avoid a costly court case.

“I am not going there. That will be set out in our affidavits,” he said.

Perth-based Bounty Oil is also pursuing legal avenues of redress for what it believes was unfair treatment by Crown Minerals regarding revocation of the permit last year. The first steps in Bounty’s fight are scheduled to be taken in the High Court in mid-May.

Feeley said he did not believe either the Bounty or ExxonMobil court actions would cause problems for the upcoming Great South Basin Blocks offers. Forty blocks covering about 360,000 square kilometres of the Southern Ocean will be available.

Whether Bounty’s former PEP 38215 permit area would be part of the available acreage would be determined by the court, Feeley said.

The Polar Duke seismic vessel acquired about 2000km of 2D seismic in early 2004 for Bounty, which was to be free-carried through a farm-out to British company Electro Silica. But the UK company never fulfilled its licence obligations and Fugro-Geoteam later sold the data to ExxonMobil.

Crown Minerals is hoping to attract a lot of international attention to the frontier Great South Basin, which has been very lightly explored. Seven wells drilled there in the 1970s and 1980s all had significant oil or gas-condensate shows, but with a prevailing price of crude of about $US10-15 per barrel, they were plugged and abandoned as sub-economic finds.