Offshore exploration set to expand off Taranaki coast

Thursday, 11 July 2019

The Archer Emerald, pictured off Taranaki in 2014, is returning to the region in 2020.

Offshore exploration is on the rise in the next 12 months, with two projects scheduled off Taranaki and a third planned in the Great South Basin.

Austrian oil explorer OMV New Zealand is headlining investment for three drilling programmes using two separate rigs.

The CSOL Prospector has been off the Taranaki coast since June. It will be reassigned to further drilling in the region, and the South Island.

The company, with offices in New Plymouth, has contracted Norway-based oil services company Archer Oil to use the Emerald modular drilling rig from March 2020 for 'brownfield' redevelopment of the Māūi field.

The infill drilling campaign will add four to five sidetrack wells at Māui A, OMV NZ senior vice-president Gabriel Selischi said.

* Exploration company proposes six year drilling programme in Taranaki Basin

* Oil rig ready to begin drilling in Taranaki waters**

Selischi said OMV's investment in Taranaki included both exploration and 'brownfield', or redevelopment, activity in previously developed areas.

The company's investment maximised its current assets as well as exploration, he said.

The Archer Emerald rig, used on Māui A platform in Taranaki from 2012 to 2014, will arrive in the region from Norway in March 2020 for an estimated 11-month programme with a possible five months further work.

Archer spokesman Kenny Dey said the company was delighted to be awarded the contract, which reinforced its position as the leading provider of harsh environment offshore modular drilling rigs, and a commitment to provide safe and efficient drilling solutions.

It demonstrated the confidence OMV has in Archer's modular rig technology and personnel following Emerald's first successful drilling campaign on Maui A between 2012 and 2014, Dey said.

As well as the Archer Emerald contract, OMV would use the 107m long CSOL Prospector drilling rig for a three-well programme in Taranaki, and initially for a further well, in partnership with Mitsui, in the Great South Basin, south east of Dunedin, it was reported.

The CSOL Prospector rig arrived in June to undertake three-and-a-half months' development drilling for Tamarind Resources at the Tui oil field in Taranaki.

The Environment Protection Authority will decide soon if OMV will be given consent to discharge minute amounts of drilling waste for a nine well programme in the Great South Basin up to 2030.

OMV New Zealand-owns and operates the Māui gas field, which is the largest in New Zealand and supplies a third of the country's gas needs, the Māari oil field and the Pohokura gas field.

It plans to spend $500m to redevelop the Māui and Pohokura fields.

The company has invested more than $2 billion in New Zealand since 2000 and contributed $1bn to the NZ economy in taxes and royalties.

In 2018 all new offshore exploration was banned by the Government with only existing permits allowed to proceed until 2030.