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Friday, 05 December, 2008, 17:10 GMT | more >>

New Zealand prepares to launch new bidding round in Taranaki basin


Kiwis to target onshore riches



By Upstream staff 

New Zealand is preparing to launch a major blocks offer in the onshore Taranaki basin.

The area is a critical part of New Zealand’s energy landscape as it is the counrty’s only oil and gas producing region.

However, a lack of significant onshore exploration success, along with plans by North American independents Swift Energy and Tag Oil to quit the country, contrasts to the offshore Taranaki basin where drilling rigs are working and fields are being developed.

The government intends to start the onshore Taranaki licensing round in about six to eight weeks, said sources. It will involve the first blocks to be offered since the 2003 round.

A sizeable amount of acreage spread across about nine blocksis likely to be up for grabs, according to sources.

A window of six months is expected, with a bid deadline in the first quarter of 2008 based on a committed work programme by interested companies.

Sources said the government’s petroleum agency, Crown Minerals, is hoping that companies will bid early drilling commitments.

However, it will be 2009, at best, before any drilling takes place.

New Zealand’s Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven told delegates at the New Zealand Oil & Gas Expo that exploration activities across onshore Taranaki had slowed in recent times.

He said the Crown had been able to aggregate acreage “of material scale to support a blocks offer across onshore Taranaki which is intended to attract a fresh exploration approach to unlock potential deep tight gas plays”.

Explorers have been trying without much success to understand the complex deep gas play in Taranaki.

A consortium of explorers got together last year to find solutions to problems that had plagued the Cardiff, Radnor and Kahili deep gas projects and to open up exploration success.

However, the consortium has not made any moves, said sources.

Crown Minerals intends to showcase the Taranaki round later this year, and will make available a data pack including information gathered so far on deep-gas work.

The last onshore Taranaki round in 2003 was a success, with Roc Oil, Tap Oil and Austral Pacific Energy among the companies picking up acreage.

However, Roc and Tap have since relinquished their blocks because of exploration failures.

Austral Pacific is one of the few remaining onshore explorers, while privately owned Greymouth Petroleum is the only player to have had any onshore exploration success in recent times. Greymouth also operates a number of small onshore fields.

Swift has been the busiest onshore player in New Zealand for years, and has two producing projects — Rimu-Kauri and the Tawn field complex.

Friday, 21 September, 2007, 03:10 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 21 September, 2007, 03:10 GMT

Critical: Taranaki is important to New Zealand's energy landscape
 
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