The comparable loss for the 2006 fiscal year was only $US1.43 million.
Vancouver-based TAG said it started the 2007 fiscal year with $US18.8 million in cash and cash equivalents, and ended the year with $US13.43 million.
But shareholders’ equity increased – from $US27.03 million at March 31, 2006 to $US40.14 million at March 31, 2007 – as a result of a $US28.05 million private share placement that let TAG purchase Cheal Petroleum, which owned a 30.5% interest in the onshore Taranaki Cheal oil field and a 15.1% interest in the nearby Cardiff deep gas prospect.
TAG said it incurred $US40.55 million of expenditure ($US7.58 million in the 2006 year) on its oil and gas properties, of which $US27.54 million related to acquiring and developing the company’s interest in Cheal Petroleum.
It earned $US938,838 from gross production of 45,094 barrels of Cheal oil, over the final three quarters of the 2007 fiscal year, using temporary production facilities.
TAG said it expected gross production from the temporary Cheal facilities to increase from 350 barrels of oil per day to about 800 bopd after final commissioning of permanent facilities started in September.
Operator Austral Pacific Energy has a 69.5% interest in Cheal, while TAG holds the remaining 30.5%.
TAG will concentrate on its North Island blocks, having relinquished its Canterbury Basin acreage in the eastern South Island.
TAG president Drew Cadenhead said the results of the unsuccessful offshore Canterbury Cutter-1 well drilled late last year had made TAG reassess its own onshore Canterbury licence, PEP 38256.
“The results of the Cutter-1 well have significantly impacted TAG's internal risk assessment of hydrocarbon migration on to onshore Canterbury,” he said.
“We have no further interest in exploring in onshore Canterbury at this time.”
TAG has reached a confidential, out-of-court settlement with New Zealand private company Green Gate regarding another onshore Canterbury licence, PEP 38260, and the Kate prospect.
Meanwhile, according to Crown Minerals, TAG has applied for a second five-year term for onshore Taranaki licence PEP 38745, and applied for a renewal of PEP 38758 where it drilled the non-commercial shallow Mangamingi-1 wildcat earlier this year.
Cadenhead said he could not discuss plans for onshore Taranaki as Crown Minerals was looking to have a new blocks offer over that acreage within the next 12 months.
“Discussing any prospects we have, shallow or deep, might jeopardise our competitive chances of acquiring adjacent permits,” he said.
The company also has acreage in the North Island’s East Coast Basin.
