Kate-1 drilling next month .... finally!! GGX will be seriously rerated once spud date and geotech data released ...imo. Buy ! SALTY
Below story borrowed from NZO thread.
The North Sea of the south By JAMES WEIR - The Dominion Post | Monday, 10 March 2008
New Zealand may be the southern hemisphere's answer to North Sea oil, according to a leading geophysicist, with the potential for finding billions more barrels of oil off the coast. The New Zealand Petroleum conference kicks off in Auckland today, a few days after world oil prices hit a high of US$106 a barrel. The Kiwi exploration sector is also buzzing over the better-than-expected offshore Taranaki Tui oilfield, which is producing about 45,000 barrels a day. About 2 billion barrels have been discovered. But GNS exploration geophysicist Chris Uruski says many more billions of barrels may yet be found off New Zealand's coast, possibly in water as deep as 2000 metres. Big sedimentary basins Deepwater Taranaki and the new frontier area of the Raukumara Basin off the East Cape may yield oil, while the Great South Basin off the bottom of the South Island is already being explored. The high price of oil should have a positive effect on exploration, which so far had barely scratched the surface in New Zealand, Mr Uruski said. A survey of Deepwater Taranaki showed three large prospects that could each hold up to 1 billion barrels of oil, though the prospects were well offshore and therefore expensive to explore. "One [the Romney structure] could hold 3 billion barrels. The potential is quite large, but realising that potential is another matter." Romney is about 120 kilometres offshore in deep water, though even at 2000m drilling is possible. It would take a company with courage and deep pockets to explore Deepwater Taranaki but if a big player arrived, it could trigger a new wave of exploration, Mr Uruski said. Players were already sniffing about Deepwater Taranaki. Mr Uruski said that early seismic work on the Raukumara basin suggested that area could also hold billions of barrels of oil. About 10,000 sq km of the region held source rock, which could be expelling oil, with a potential capacity of about five million barrels for each square kilometre. "There could be about 50 billion barrels," Mr Uruski said. American oil giant Exxon Mobil and Austria's OMV are already exploring the Great South Basin, with a decision on drilling expected in 2010. However, any development could be a decade away, according to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association The consortia will implement analysis and drilling estimated at $1.2 billion in the next five years. With shares in the Maui and Pohokura gas fields, OMV is already a player in New Zealand. OMV has a 69 per cent stake in the offshore Taranaki field Maari, which is due to yield its first oil later this year and could contain as much as 50 million barrels of oil. In a few months, the Government will offer blocks of onshore Taranaki land for exploration, and New Zealand Oil & Gas has already indicated it may bid for some. Australian firms such as Origin Energy and AWE are exploring here, as are locally listed NZOG, Austral Pacific and Pan Pacific
GGX Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
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