High hopes for N.Z. oil and gas

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 1

High hopes for N.Z. oil and gas

New Zealand’s oil and gas prospects are good enough to suppose that two or three times the known reserves will be found through exploration planned in the next, few years, Bays the Minister of Energy (Mr Birch). Almost $7O million would be spent on exploration in 1981; up to five off-shore and one onshore wells would be drilled and considerable seismic work done, Mr Birch told the annual conference of the geological society in Christchurch yesterday. The recent find at Petrocorp’s McKee No. 2 well suggested that future discoveries would have a higher proportion of oiLto gas than previously found, he said. The best prospects of discovery, however, were still in Taranaki, where Shell-BP-Todd (Offshore), Hematite, and Petrocorp would start drilling four off-shore wells in December. A Sedco 445 off-shore rig was being prepared in Singapore for this work. Although early work in the Great South Basin suggested that the huge area was also “very prospective”, the high costs of exploration and development in rough, deep waters meant that only a big discovery would be economic, and any oil would probably have to be exported, he said. Mr Birch ruled out the chances of big discoveries in Canterbury, the West Coast, Southland and Wanganui, because

the sedimentary section was either too thin for significant oil-gas generation to have occurred,' or .the likely structures were too small to trap significant volumes of hydrocarbons.

However, little was known of big areas of possible deep off-shore reserves, particularly o i Lord. Howe Rise, Challenger Plateau, Campbell Plateau, parts of the Chatham Rise, and off the West Coast. Several structures In Taranaki -were potentially bigger than the off-shore Maui - reserve and other smaller structures had been traced.

"It is very likely that reserves far greater than now known will eventually be proved,” he said. Oil prospects in southern Hawke’s Bay were better than formerly believed, according to work done by the Geophysics Division of the D.S.I.R. The whole east coast of the North Island continental shelf and deepwater section was prospective for gas hydrates, and a test well was needed. Mr Birch said that interest in exploration by oil companies had risen markedly in the last 12 months. Two new licences had been authorised this week and one licence extended. The new licences were for an area off-shore from Karamea, on the West Coast, and for part of the New Plymouth harbour area.