The Canadian-listed junior explorer is planning to shoot 30-40 square kilometres of seismic during the next few months in the northeastern part of licence PEP 38744 that TAG owns and operates with a 100% interest.
“We have done a pretty comprehensive regional study of sands distribution regarding the Mount Messenger Formation – different areas with different potential,” president Drew Cadenhead told PetroleumNews.net today.
He said the small, shallow Miocene-aged oil and gas pools of Taranaki were often hard to find without detailed 3D seismic and other subsurface information.
“Some existing 2D data is very sparse and we need 3D to be able to get a more accurate picture of these often pools, some of which may only be a square kilometre or two in area.
“What we are targeting with this survey is acreage that we believe is near the Inglewood fault system. This is a proven system, a critical fault system that provides a conduit for hydrocarbons and which feeds, we believe, the nearby commercial Kaimiro, Ngatoro fields, and our own Supplejack discovery,” said Cadenhead.
The permit immediately offshore from TAG’s licence is PEP 38773, where operator private company Greymouth Petroleum last August conducted a 2D transition zone seismic survey over some of the city’s beaches, golf courses, reserves and walkways.
However, TAG chief geophysicist Ricardo Bertalotti told PNN that TAG’s survey was likely to be a few kilometres south of the coast and covering parts of eastern New Plymouth.
Meanwhile, Cadenhead said TAG’s shallow Mangamingi-1 well in rugged eastern Taranaki was nearing its 1900m target depth and the well should be logged over the weekend and the results known next week.
“The Bonus Drilling 2 rig has performed exceptionally well in our first assignment in the rugged hills of eastern Taranaki – we are very pleased,” he added.
TAG, which holds 100% equity in the licence PEP 38758, conducted detailed geochemical sampling and a 35km 2D seismic survey over part of the permit last January.
Mangamingi-1 is testing the hydrocarbon potential of a number of different shallow targets found in eastern Taranaki.
