Wellington-headquartered NZOG this morning said attempts to recover the stuck pipe in the 8½-inch section of the Kupe South-7 well had failed and that section had been abandoned.
Preparations were now underway to sidetrack and redrill the reservoir section, the company said.
The jack-up Ensco Rig 107 had earlier intersected the top of the Paleocene-aged Farewell Formation reservoir but the drill string became stuck when making a connection at a depth of 3454m below the rotary table, NZOG added.
The Ensco rig had earlier drilled the Kupe South-6 and 8 wells to depths of 3385m and 3834m respectively. Both wells had confirmed commercial hydrocarbons in the Farewell formation.
Operator Origin Energy is doing the Kupe development drilling on a "batch-drilling" basis, drilling each section of the three wells sequentially from the same top-hole location.
The Kupe partners are operator Origin Energy (50%), Genesis Energy (31%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (15%), and Mitsui E&P NZ (4%).
