As part of Tap Oil’s regional exploration operations, Nautec was contracted to fully plan, execute and manage drilling operations for Tap Oil’s Inglewood campaign, located in Taranaki’s onshore exploration tenement zones. To date approximately 500 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic metres of gas have been discovered in the rift complex. In comparison with other regions of its size, exploration in the basin has only covered a fraction of potential reserves.
The Client
Tap Oil Ltd
The Scope
As an independent provider of drilling project management services, Nautec solicited tenders from various specialist subcontractors to provide:
- Drilling and casing equipment
- Wellhead hardware
- Drilling fluids and services
- Cement and associated services
- A drilling rig and support hardware
In addition to exploration infrastructure, AWT procured completions and production hardware on standby in the event commercial grade hydrocarbon was discovered in the exploration wells.
Hardware supplies and services were secured and delivered on time, allowing exploration drilling to commence according to Tap Oil’s required schedule. All four wells were successfully drilled to specified depths either on or ahead of schedule, on average 21% below budget and without incident. Well abandonment was subsequently completed in total accordance with New Zealand’s safety and environmental regulations.
The Value Added
AWT’s ability to engage in a close technical and commercial partnership with the customer allowed the solutions provider to coordinate various subcontractors to successfully sidetrack the original drilling path of the Hihi-1 exploration well to the updip Hihi-1A location to suit Tap’s changing requirements.
AWT was also able to expedite environmental approvals for Tap’s drilling campaign by working closely with a local New Plymouth based environmental consultancy while complementing the application process with AWT’s own considerable experience in environmental approvals.