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Horizon and Cue acquire acreage in Todd’s Matariki prospect
30 September 2008, Source: Horizon, Cue and Lindsay Clark - Two Australian-based explorers Horizon Oil and Cue Energy Resources have farmed in to Wellington-based Todd Exploration’s Matariki oil prospect 22 km south of the Maari oilfield in offshore Taranaki.
All three companies are junior partners in Maari, with the operator of that field OMV New Zealand being the only Maari partner not participating in the more southerly PEP 38494. Todd is operator of the Matariki exploration permit.
Horizon has acquired a 25% interest in PEP 38494 by funding 37.5% of the first well to be drilled, probably the Matariki prospect which is ready for drilling. The carry commitment will be capped at an agreed amount.
Cue Energy, which has acquired a 20% interest by funding 30% of drilling the Matariki -1 well. Cue is 25% owned by Todd Energy,
Horizon says there are two other leads Paua and Pike as well as the Matariki prospect on the north-south trending Tasman Ridge within PEP 38494.
Horizon sees the ridge as a logical southern extension of the Maari and Manaia structures, on-trend and up-dip and thereby well positioned on the hydrocarbon migration pathway that has charged Maari.
It is intended that Matariki -1 will be drilled after the completion of the Maari development drilling programme and the Manaia appraisal well, around mid 2009, using the Ensco 107 jack-up rig, for which Todd has acquired an option for a drilling slot.
The permit lies in 70–100 m of water. The prospective structures are generally similar to Maari with the same shallow reservoir targets and anticipated drilling depths of around 2,000 m.
The Pike and Paua leads were in the Maari 3D seismic survey zone and it is intended to reprocess this data to mature these leads for possible drilling.
Cue Energy said Matariki-1 has the potential to contain approximately 100 million barrels of recoverable oil resource.
