Oil drilling in New Zealand

Andarko fails to find oil off Otago coast

Texas-based oil company Anadarko is now "unlikely" to drill a second test oil-well it planned off the Otago coast.

Radio New Zealand,

12 March, 2014

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The company's statement comes after leaked industry information indicates Anadarko has not struck oil with its first exploration well in the Canterbury Basin, about 60 kilometres from Dunedin.

Anadarko's drill ship and a Greenpeace protest boat off Taranaki in November.

Anadarko has spent about $300 million in deepwater drilling off Taranaki and Otago and appears to have come up dry in both areas.

Unverified drilling information, leaked to Greenpeace, said Anadarko drilled to almost 2700 metres, but the seabed at the site off the Otago coast was 90 percent hardrock granite and schist, and the rest sand and clay and little, if any, oil.

Radio New Zealand has not been able to independently verify the drilling information, but industry insiders say it appears credible.

Dugald Roberts from Roberts Oil in South Canterbury hopes Anadarko does not give up, because he says he's sure a vast amount of oil and gas on a global scale is out in New Zealand's southern basins waiting to be discovered.

The firm's exploration permit gave the company the option to drill a second test well immediately, and it has previously indicated its keenness to do so if it found enough promise in the first hole.

Anadarko's New Zealand manager, Alan Seay, is not confirming or denying the leaked information, saying the company is still analysing the Otago well data and it is far too early to give results.

But he says a second test well is now very unlikely, and the drilling ship Noble Bob Douglas is likely to be going home before the end of the month.