Albacore rig arriving in Taranaki Basin
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NZPA
| Monday, 23 Nov 2009 |
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A drilling rig is expected to reach the Albacore exploration area in the northern Taranaki Basin by tomorrow to drill an exploration well.
New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG) has a 40 percent share in the Albacore permit, which is about 70km north of New Plymouth.
The Albacore-1 well was expected to take around 20 days to drill, in 95m of water, with the total drilling depth likely to be around 2200m, NZOG said today.
Three separate target zones that may contain oil or gas would be targeted by the well. At the end of drilling, the well would be plugged and abandoned, and the results analysed.
NZOG said the ENSCO-107 rig, which would drill the well, had been in Taranaki waters for two years and recently finished drilling at the Maari field in the southern Taranaki basin.
The rig was towed away from the Maari production platform last night and officially assigned to the Albacore joint venture at midnight, NZOG said.
The journey north to the Albacore drilling location would take about 24 hours.
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