The company had won the 297 square kilometre block about 40km north of the near-shore Pohokura project, in June 2006.
Industry sources told PetroleumNews.net that private New Zealand company Greymouth Petroleum, which owns over 90% of Bridge and is the dominant onshore acreage holder around the Pohokura and Mangahewa fields, is highly unlikely to have let Highland give away acreage it considered highly prospective.
The move suggests that explorers do not believe the possible linkage of the Mangahewa, Turangi, Kowhai and Pohokura gas fields extends north past Pohokura.
The possibility that the four fields could be linked has been one of the main topics of the current High Court claim by former minority Southern Petroleum shareholders, who are seeking about $NZ23 million (about $A18.4 million) in compensation from Shell Exploration New Zealand relating to the 1995-96 takeover of Southern by Fletcher Challenge Energy subsidiary Petrocorp.
The shareholders argued that several senior executives of Petrocorp and FCE, which Shell bought in 2001, were aware that a deep gas study of Southern's Mangahewa field showed very large upside, but failed to disclose the information.
