Cue, which recently confirmed it had bought a 5% stake in the Maari oil field off Taranaki, New Zealand, asked for a halt of up to 48 hours.

Cue has paid about NZ$6.2 million for its 5% stake in Maari, in the licence PEP 38413, which Cue said represented about A$2.48 per barrel for its 2.5 million barrels of P50 recoverable oil volumes.

The Maari stake was previously held through Delta Oilfield Developments, which was operated through Carpenter Pacific and Westgold.

A development decision on the field, which is 80km offshore in water 100m deep, is expected to be made in April and oil could be flowing in the second quarter of 2007.

Austrian energy giant OMV is the operator and has 69% of Maari, Todd Energy owns 16% and ASX-listed company Horizon Oil has a 10% stake.