Operations to plug and abandon the well, which reached a total measured depth of 4052m, will be undertaken and the Ocean Patriot rig will be released as planned, according to AWE.
Located about 10km north of the AWE-operated Tui Area oil development, Kopuwai has a mapped closure extending over 30 square kilometres, and the partners were hoping the structure would hold more than 100 million or more barrels of oil.
The Kopuwai partners are AWE (50%), Beach Petroleum (20%) and Mitsui Exploration (30%).
