Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has abandoned all of its oil and gas exploration permits in the offshore Canterbury basin off the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
The company ran out out of time to drill the proposed Wherry-1 wildcat in permit PEP3864 which lies about 170 km from Timaru on the Canterbury coast.
Original plans called for the well to be drilled early this year in 1,300 m of water to a drilling depth of 3,000 m subsea.
Beach acquired PEP 38264 in 2018 from Origin Energy.
Beach said that a commercial decision was made not to drill the well and the permit has been relinquished along with two others held by the company off the South Island.
Beach has retained its interests in the Taranaki basin off the west coast of the North Island.