Recent successes in onshore oil exploration are pushing New Zealand Oil & Gas to assess bidding for exploration blocks or farm-ins with existing players in its quest for a more diverse earnings stream than its traditional reliance on offshore Taranaki oil and gas plays.
Chief executive Andrew Knight stopped short of criticising the company's previous management for abandoning onshore opportunities about a decade ago, but said a local onshore component in the NZOG portfolio could "provide some of that balance" which the company required.
Its tendency in recent years had been to focus on local offshore opportunities, which required occasional, but substantial bursts of capital expenditure, which gave NZOG a "potentially lumpy investment profile", Knight told a briefing on the company's earnings for the year to June 30.
The company posted a full-year profit of $19.9 million as it puts behind it the disastrous foray into the Pike River coal project that saw it plunge to a $76.5 million loss the previous year.
Knight indicated onshore plays were among between six and 12 bids NZOG is mulling as it prepares to participate in the government's mid-October auction of exploration licence blocks.