Greymouth to test Motoroa potential

Greymouth Petroleum, a privately owned energy company, is exploring a historic oil field in Taranaki and is not ruling out listing on the sharemarket.

The company was set up six years ago and is owned by family interests of Mark Dunphy, a former Fay Richwhite banker with 20 years' experience in the Australian energy sector, Peter Masfen, one of this country's best known private investors, and John Sturgess.

It has a number of oil and gas projects under way in Taranaki in production and exploration.

The company said yesterday that it was importing a drilling rig to explore further potential in the historic Motoroa field near New Plymouth's port.

The company has been negotiating for six months to get access to the Maui pipeline for gas from its Turangi field.

Dunphy said deliveries of gas from that field could be "up there" with other fields.

The company also said a new gas pool had been discovered at its separate Kaimiro licence. Flow testing at the site was under way.

Dunphy said a sharemarket listing was not something the company was planning immediately "but it is something we wouldn't rule out. If there is a good reason that we could see we would consider it."

Dunphy believed there was great potential in the oil and gas industry after it was opened up by the exit of Fletcher Challenge and Shell from the sector.

Motoroa had produced meaningful volumes of oil during its life and the upcoming drilling programme would appraise possible extensions to the field.

Dunphy said before the Europeans arrived Maori were actively using oil flowing on the beach in the area.

"It was really what attracted Shell and BP to explore in New Zealand."

Greymouth has acquired assets from Shell.

- NZPA