Origin last Friday that the gas wildcat, in licence PEP 38485 on the edge of the Taranaki and Northland basins, was being drilled to a proposed total depth of 3995m.

Todd Energy managing director Richard Tweedie told PetroleumNews.net in June that the PEP 38485 partners had initially not planned to drill the Moana prospect until 2008 but had taken advantage of a spare slot in the Patriot’s drilling program.

The PEP 38485 partners are: operator OMV New Zealand (33.33%), Origin Energy Resources NZ (33.33%) and Todd Petroleum Mining (33.33%).