A week after closing its New Zealand office on December 14, the Perth-based company surrendered PEP 38496, a licence it had operated with a 37.5% stake, along with government-owned Mighty River Power (25%) and Flinder Exploration (37.5%).
Although some industry observers believed the licence could be a northward extension of an onshore-offshore play centred around the near-shore Pohokura gas-condensate field, Tap is seeking more high-impact targets in its exploration portfolio - as former chief executive Paul Underwood told PetroleumNews.net last month.
Tap's last New Zealand well was the offshore Canterbury Cutter-1 wildcat in PEP 38259 that failed to find anything worthwhile in the targeted Shag Point Formation in late 2006.
It is known the PEP 38259 joint venture - operator Tap (40%), Australian Worldwide Exploration (25%), Beach Petroleum (20%) and Anzon (15%) - has further plans for the licence, perhaps drilling the larger Barque prospect during 2008, though the first five-year term for this licence expires next August.
