Progress for the week was 164m and Cutter is now at 714m. The well is being drilled in 64m-deep water and on a trouble-free basis is expected to take about three weeks to reach planned total depth of about 3000m.
Cutter-1 is in the PEP 38259 permit, about 23km off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island and 200km south-southwest of Christchurch in the offshore Canterbury Basin.
The Cutter prospect has a potential recoverable volume of about 70-80 million barrels of oil in the Shag Point Formation.
The PEP 38259 permit area is lightly explored but already has a non-commercial gas and condensate discovery, Galleon-1, 45km south of Cutter-1. On test, the reservoir section in Galleon-1 produced 10.4 million cubic feet of gas per day with associated condensate at a rate of about 2200 barrels per day.
Following completion of operations at Cutter-1, the offshore drilling rig will be relocated to the Taranaki basin, where Australian Worldwide Exploration will operate an eight-well exploration and development program. The first well in this upcoming Taranaki campaign is planned to be Tieke-1.
At the conclusion of the Cutter-1 well, participants in PEP 38259 will be operator Tap (New Zealand) (40% interest), AWE New Zealand (25%), Beach Petroleum (NZ) (20%) and Anzon New Zealand (15%).
