There were no more accusations of Greymouth plundering the Goldie oil prospect through drilling the Kamiro-19 infill well horizontally into the Goldie prospect from its neighbouring onshore Taranaki Kaimiro field.

Neither were there further suggestions that Indo-Pacific subsidiary Ngatoro Energy Ltd (NEL) should be removed as Goldie operator because it had done irrevocable damage to the field through its poor performance.

Instead, the second day of the scheduled three-week civil case began with detailed cross-examination by Indo-Pacific counsel Alan MacKenzie of Shell New Zealand legal manager Alan Bewley.

Bewley told the court there had been several disagreements between Shell and Ngatoro Energy Ltd (NEL) about the exact scope and purpose of the Goldie sole risk joint venture operating agreement (JVOA).

NEL maintained well completion and testing costs should be included in the JVOA as Indo-Pacific chief executive Dave Bennett believed a commercial discovery could not be established without completing and testing the Goldie-1 exploration well.

Shell, however, did not agree with this and asked for an audit of costs to ensure a "proper" splitting of costs according to the JVOA. Shell subsequently paid an "audited sum" which included completion and test costs, though Bewley admitted there might not have been any obligation for Shell to have done so.

He admitted testing of a well could be done before it was finished or before a decision had been made to either complete the well as a producer or to plug and abandon it.

He further admitted that NEL's offer of further testing, which MacKenzie said was also made to fellow Ngatoro partner New Zealand Oil and Gas, was made before Shell had decided to "back-in" to the Goldie sole risk venture.

Bewley added that Bennett had told him he believed Shell was "sabre rattling" and, as a large multinational, it should agree with NEL about the JVOA terms.

Greymouth principal Mark Dunphy is due later this afternoon to give evidence about his company's claims surrounding the circumstances of NEL drilling Goldie-1 in early 2001 and the interpretations of the sole risk JVOA.

Greymouth is claiming it is entitled to 92.2564% of all revenues from Goldie, not the 59.57% stake it bought from Shell NZ last year, as well as being entitled to sell all Goldie gas. It is further claiming about $NZ40 million in damages because it says NEL did not operate Goldie optimally and had caused "irrevocable damage" to the field.

Justice Wilde expects to be hearing Greymouth's and Indo-Pacific's claims and counter claims until early April, with at least one overseas expert being called to give evidence.