Southern Ocean oil drilling delay sought

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The New Zealand arm of Austrian oil and gas explorer OMV is seeking a two month extension while it decides what to do next with its three exploration permits in the Great South Basin.

There are three options: commit within the next 12 months to an exploration drilling programme, acquire three-dimensional seismic data to overlay 2-D seismic already acquired, or drop the permit for lack of identifiable opportunity.

Decisions are due by July 10 under the conditions of Petroleum Exploration Permits 50119, 50120, and 50121, and OMV as operator is seeking an extension to September 10.OMV has a 36 per cent interest in the licences, which lie in deep ocean off the Otago coast.

While the Great South Basin is regarded as highly prospective for oil and gas, it has yet to produce a commercial opportunity. In October last year, global producer Exxon Mobil and 10 per cent local partner Todd Energy. surrendered their exploration licence in the area, having acquired 3-D seismic and failed to find an economically viable opportunity.

Any drilling would be in deep water, the potential for which attracted protest from the environmental group Greenpeace when Brazil's Petrobras oil company was conducting 2-D seismic surveys in the Raukumara Basin, off East Cape.

US-based deep-sea driller Anadarko has been assessing the potential to bring a rig to New Zealand over one of the next two summers, and seeking other users to help defray costs.