Indo-Pacific Outlines New Zealand Drilling Program

Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific Energy Ltd. has secured all necessary services to support its previously advised drilling campaign. Over the coming 6 months, a total of 5 wells will be drilled in onshore New Zealand, of which 4 will be exploration wells, while Goldie-2 will be an appraisal/development well on the Goldie oil field. In the onshore Taranaki Basin, Century Drilling Company's Rig #2 will commence the Kahili-1 well on or about 1 December, and is anticipated to move on to Goldie-2 around January and Tabla-1 in February; while Parker Drilling Company's Rig 188 is scheduled to begin Huinga Deep-1 in late January/early February. In the East Coast Basin, a truck mounted rig will be used to drill Waingaromia-2 early in 2002.

Kahili-1 will test a target of similar size and type to that which holds the Tariki field, 2-3 miles south along trend. The New Zealand government records that Tariki and the smaller adjacent Ahuroa field have combined reserves in excess of 100 billion cubic foot of gas and 4 million barrels of condensate; while the Tariki-1A well, for example, flows in production at rates up to 40 million cubic foot of gas per day. A previous well, Tariki North-1A, intersected excellent Tariki Sandstones reservoir on the south flank of the Kahili structure, with extensive evidence for hydrocarbons in this reservoir, but it was never flow-tested. Additional targets are provided by the shallower Tikorangi Limestones, within which an oil production well one mile to the south of Kahili has produced at a rate of 750 barrels per day, and the Mt Messenger sandstones, which are the producing reservoir in the Goldie and Ngatoro oil fields, and which were also not flow-tested in the Tariki North-1 well, despite evidence for hydrocarbons. Goldie-2 will test the southwestern extension of the Goldie oil field, and, if successful, is likely to double the present Proven reserves of approximately 750,000 barrels independently certified for Goldie-1 (which has already produced 125,000 barrels of oil). Tabla-1 will test a similar target to the Goldie oil pool, defined from the Ngatoro 3D seismic coverage as positioned one mile to southeast of the Ngatoro oil field and 2 miles southeast of Goldie. In a separate drilling program, the Parker 188 rig will shortly commence the Makino-1 well, just south of Indo-Pacific's PEP 38716. The Makino structure lies north of Swift Energy's Rimu oil discovery, which it resembles, and extends into Indo-Pacific's PEP 38716 permit area. Although Indo-Pacific has no direct interest in the Makino-1 well, it may, if successful, establish a substantial discovery which could extend significantly into Indo-Pacific's permit area. Following on from Makino, the rig will be moved to the Huinga site in PEP 38716 during January, to re-enter the Huinga-1 well, drilled in 1999, and then deviate westwards to test a deeper target not reached in the original Huinga-1 well. The Huinga Deep prospect is of similar type and scale to Makino and Swift's Rimu and Kauri oil discoveries, and lies 2 miles to the east of the Waihapa oil field (official reserves 30 million barrels) where individual wells have produced at rates in excess of 10,000 barrels of oil per day. In addition to these wells, the Waingaromia-2 well will be drilled to 1700 feet depth in the East Coast Basin in early 2002, alongside the 19th century oil producer Waingaromia-1, where oil and gas ignited and burnt the wooden derrick to the ground. Hydrocarbons still seep from the old well casing, which is situated in a valley alongside the spectacular Waitangi oil ponds.


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