Prospects attract US oil drillers

By CHRIS DANIELS

International interest in potentially massive oil reserves deep under the Tasman Sea is growing, says one of New Zealand's top geologists.

Chris Uruski, a geophysicist with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, presented results of a recent deepwater seismic survey to oil industry geologists in Australia and the United States.

He told the Houston conference last month that "the deepwater Taranaki Basin may contain as much as 20 billion barrels of trapped oil".

Mr Uruski, along with private company TGS-Nopec, which ran the survey, will now try to get the big oil companies to pay for the data.

They will then use this information to bid for prospecting areas, when the Government puts them up for tender this year.

TGS-Nopec and the institute are allowed to charge for access to the seismic data for the next five years, after which ownership reverts to the Crown, and is free for anyone to look at.

Mr Uruski said the completed data should be available to the oil industry by the middle of the month. Until then it was difficult to get a clear idea of how many companies were interested in drilling in New Zealand's deepwater.

"We've been talking directly to some of the major oil companies, but until we've actually got the final data, I don't think they're going to be putting money on the table," he said.

Only the very biggest of the global oil giants are expected to be interested in looking for oil deep under the Tasman because of the high cost involved in exploring so far out at sea.