Taranaki Port, West coast New Zealand

NZEC's Fifth Strike

Vancouver-headquartered NZEC announced overnight that Waitapu-1, the first well beyond its Copper Moki discovery in the Eltham exploration lease PEP 51150, had reached a total depth of 2213m and open-hole logs had been run.

The well is being cased in preparation for perforating at least one Miocene-aged Mt Messenger interval.

Following perforation of Waitapu-1, the Ensign Rig 19 will be repositioned on the same drill pad to finish drilling Waitapu-2, which already has been drilled and cased to 300m.

Waitapu-1 and 2 are the first of possibly eight wells NZEC plans to drill by early 2013.

These are primarily targeting the Mt Messenger sands that are widespread over much of onshore Taranaki and from which the four commercial Copper Moki oil and gas discovery wells flow.

If NZEC’s success continues, it may start to rival that of fellow Canadian junior TAG Oil, which has drilled 17 wells in a row at the nearby Cheal and Sidewinder oil and gas fields.

All of those have proved commercial.

Story courtesy of Energy News Bulletin.net