By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 7 – TAG Oil Ltd., Vancouver, BC, said the first horizontal well in New Zealand’s Mount Messenger formation is testing at rates of 400-500 b/d of mostly oil without water and that it is working to commercialize its Sidewinder oil and gas discovery.
While testing the 100%-controlled Cheal-BH-1 horizontal well in the Taranaki basin in a conservative range of low draw-down configurations, TAG Oil plans to begin step-out drilling in February 2011 targeting the Mount Messenger and Urenui formations at 3D seismic prospects on the lightly explored Cheal acreage.
Meanwhile, the company is designing a production station for Sidewinder including a 3-km pipeline link into New Zealand’s main gas transmission grid. The station could handle oil and gas output from all future Sidewinder wells.
TAG’s present timeline forecasts facility commissioning, with estimated initial production rates from the Sidewinder-1 well of 8-10 MMcfd by mid-2011.
Rendering from Cedar LNG.
US Government Accountability Office.
