Project Profile
Location: Offshore Canterbury Coast, New Zealand
Water Depth: 800 m
Reserves: 530 million boe (Barque prospect)
The Canterbury and Great South Basin system is the major focus for frontier conventional oil and gas exploration in New Zealand, with drilling in an adjacent permit scheduled for early 2015. The former PEP 38259, containing the Barque prospect, was relinquished by New Zealand Oil & Gas and Beach in August 2012 ahead of a drilling commitment. In 2013 Beach was granted an extension to PEP 52717 that largely incorporates the Barque structure and a related lead, which is mapped to extend across the previous southern boundary of the permit. An area of low prospectivity in the northwest of the original permit was surrendered so as to approximately maintain the overall area of the permit. Extensive 2D seismic surveys were conducted in the Canterbury Basin in the 1970s and 1980s before the only existing well in the block, Clipper-1, was drilled by BP in 1984, recovering samples of hydrocarbon gas during wireline logging from a depth of over 4,000m. In 2013, the joint venture completed reprocessing of 1,250 kilometres of vintage 2D seismic data, and acquired approximately 650 sq-kilometres of high-quality 3D seismic data.
The Barque prospect is a large cretaceous structural trap of approx. 150 sq. km located within the Clipper graben. The target formations lie between 2,500 and 3,000 metres below mean sea level.
Operators:
New Zealand Oil & Gas: Operator with 50% interest
Beach Energy: 50% interest