Denver-based Westech is hoping to replicate the success it had in PEP 38732 in 2000, when two of the three Windsor wells it drilled resulted in commercial gas flows.

Company president Ed Davies confirmed from Denver that Westech would use the OD & E Rig 19 to drill Surrey-1 after the rig had finished drilling the Tuhara-1B deviation appraisal well in the onshore East Coast Basin permit PEP 38329.

The Surrey well would test the shallow Miocene-aged Mount Messenger sandstones and would probably spud in early July, said Davies.

The OD & E Rig 19 was also used by Westech when it made its Windsor discovery in the same small permit two years ago.

Then Westech completed the Windsor-1 and 3 wells as Miocene-aged Mt Messenger gas producers. The Winsor-2 well, which had been drilled into a separate reservoir proved to be a dry hole. All wells, which were Westech's first for the Taranaki Basin, were drilled and deviated from the same pad. The company did not release detailed well flow rates at the time, however.

Westech New Zealand began the deviated Tuhara-1B appraisal well in early June, re-entering the Tuhara-1/1A well about 10 km east of Wairoa, where gas shows had been found in 2000. The well is being directionally drilled about 300m up-dip to encounter the Tunanui Sandstones at a higher elevation than earlier wells.

The well is on a surface location but the Tuhara prospect runs into the offshore permit PEP 38326, for which Westech Energy NZ is also the operator. Drilling is expected to be completed soon.