The Wellington-headquartered company told the ASX and NZX today that it had identified six further offshore Taranaki prospects with possible combined recoverable reserves of almost 2 tcf of gas and 300 million barrels of oil.

General manager Gordon Ward said NZOG believed there was potential for the Kupe field to contain another 10-30 million barrels of liquids and another 150-250 Petajoules of gas – in the Kupe-1, Kupe South 4 and 5 areas - as well as the central area P2 reserves of 16 million barrels of oil and 230PJ of gas.

The Hector, Hector North, Weka, Mangatoa, Felix, Taitapa and Tahuroa offshore prospects – either in north Taranaki, near Kupe, or in other parts of the Tui Area oil fields in PEP 38460 – had the potential to hold 1.8 tcf of gas and 300 million barrels of oil (NZOG’s share 0.9 tcf and 125 million barrels).

The targets in these prospects were Miocene-aged reservoirs, the Eocene-aged Kapuni group, or Cretaceous traps.

Ward outlined definite exploration timetables for only some of these prospects, saying 3D seismic surveys over Hector and Weka (southeast of Tui) were scheduled to start shortly.

Final investment decisions for Kupe, Tui Area fields (Tui, Amokura and Pateke) and the Pike River coal development are all expected later this year.

The partners are Origin Energy 50%, Genesis Power 31%, Mitsui Energy 4%, New Zealand Oil & Gas 15%.