New Zealand: East Coast basin well has shows in source rock

TAG Oil Ltd., Vancouver, BC, said its Ngapaeruru-1 exploratory well on PEP 38349 in New Zealand’s East Coast basin had excellent mud gas shows at 1,140-1,295 m and that preliminary gas ratio analysis indicates a predominantly wet gas/oil signature.

TAG Oil cut and recovered sidewall cores over 14 intervals within the 155 m of potential unconventional oil and gas pay, sampled total organic carbon, and acquired in situ gas analysis at depth and has forwarded all data to independent laboratories for expert analysis. Total depth is 1,417 m, below the main objective naturally fractured Waipawa and Whangai source rock formations.

Detailed petrophysical evaluation is under way with a full suite of unconventional logs to ascertain source rock quality, fracture identification, geochemistry, and rock moduli data. The data are critical to determining the most suitable completion and production test methods.