ECA's Wholly Owned Subsidiary, Westech Energy, Mentioned in Petroleum News
ECA's Wholly Owned Subsidiary, Westech Energy, Mentioned in Petroleum News for its New Zealand operations
October 7th, 2009
Neil Ritchie, New Zealand
“The 2009-10 drilling season is already certain to be a very full and interesting one, led by the Kan Tan IV and Ensco 107 rig clubs,” McDouall Stuart head of research John Kidd told PetroleumNews.net from India this morning.
 The programs involve at least seven wildcat, exploration and appraisal wells with the various joint ventures led by Australian Worldwide Exploration planning to use the Kan Tan IV semisubmersible drilling rig to drill at least four wells off Taranaki and the northern tip of the South Island.
Origin Energy has confirmed it will use the same rig to drill two wildcat wells to test the Korimako and Tarapunga prospects in licence PEP 38619 off Northland, while the Ensco 107 jack-up rig is currently drilling the horizontal section of the Manaia-1 appraisal well from the Maari wellhead platform.
Ensco 107 will then move north to drill the Albacore-1 well for PEP 38491 operator Westech Energy, Mighty River Power and New Zealand Oil & Gas.
“This level of activity puts New Zealand in the top 10 countries globally for the number of likely 2009-10 offshore exploration wells,” Kidd told PNN.
Last year’s change of government – from the resource-wary Labour administration to the more pro-active National-led team – was helping lift New Zealand’s profile overseas.
“But a much stronger factor in the current upswing is the success that some second tier companies have had with recent exploration, particularly the Tui joint venture,” Kidd said.
“Tui's outstanding success in just over two years has enabled AWE and its JV partners to fund a serious and very credible forward exploration campaigns.”
He said AWE was the clearest example, spending about $NZ250 million (about $A206 million) on its NZ program. Similarly, fellow Tui partners NZOG and Pan Pacific Petroleum were reinvesting.
“This is a very healthy trend to see in the local E&P sector as it demonstrates a strong commitment by these players to reinvest locally.”
Kidd also said that the government, via the Crown Minerals Group and other organisations such as GNS Science, was putting significant effort and focus into attracting the super-majors.
“But it is the second-tier companies that are currently, and by some distance, the most active with the exploration drill bit.
“This supports my view that the NZ E&P context is well suited to this sort of company demographic.”
He added that it would always be hard for New Zealand to attract and retain the super-majors, “who must constantly chase elephants to replace produced reserves”, but said New Zealand had already proved itself to the mid-sized second tier.
“The more players New Zealand is able to attract in this middle space the better.
“More players mean stronger competition between players for acreage and work programs, and higher likelihoods of attracting farm-in partners. Support industries will benefit and grow with more work available to them. But all this starts with the drill bit,” Kidd concluded.
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