Wellington-headquartered Austral announced today that it had signed an agreement to acquire all of IRM, for an undisclosed sum and subject to financing arrangements and finalisation of due diligence.

IRM is a small, private New Zealand oil and gas exploration and production company, whose principal asset is a 19.8% interest in the Cardiff field in mining licence PMP 38156.

Austral president and CEO Thom Jewell said the consideration for IRM's interest wouldl be paid partly in cash, and partly by the issue of shares, subject to regulatory approvals.

Jewell also said testing of the Cardiff-2A gas-condensate well was still proceeding.

“We expect to be in position to make a more detailed announcement regarding progress within the week,” he said.

The new Cardiff partners will be operator Austral (44.9%), Genesis Energy (40%), and Canadian listed TAG Oil (15.1%).