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Drilling has reached more than 500m on an exploration well which could contain either oil or gas - or possibly both - near the Kupe field.
Origin Energy and its partners including New Zealand Oil and Gas are drilling at Momoho 1, about 6km southeast of Kupe.
The Kupe gas and oil field is located off the coast of Taranaki.
By Wednesday drilling had reached depths of 560m. A section of the well will reach a depth of 3142m and drilling is expected to take 51 days.
Momoho 1 lies between the previously drilled wildcat wells in unproven territory, Kupe South-4, which found sub-commercial volumes of gas and Kupe South-5, which found sub-commercial volumes of oil.
Kupe project director Peter Ashford said that since the Kupe project was approved in June 2006 Origin, as operator of the Kupe joint venture, had been looking for other exploration opportunities close to the facilities.
Extensive geological and geophysical investigations identified the Momoho prospect as the most exciting in the Kupe area.
Origin runs the Kupe project with a 50 per cent stake, on behalf of partners Genesis Energy (31 per cent, New Zealand Oil and Gas (15 per cent) and Mitsui E&P Australia (4 per cent).
McDouall Stuart energy analyst John Kidd said the Momoho field was in good real estate.
