NEW ZEALAND – PEP 51311

The Kakapo prospect (formerly Kaupokonui) is situated in the highly productive Taranaki Basin which currently hosts discovered resources of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The Kakapo prospect is located between the Maari oil field (51 million barrels) and the Kupe gas/condensate field (288 billion cubic feet of gas plus 27 million barrels of liquids).

Raisama holds the rights to a 10% working interest in the Kakapo prospect which has a gross mean recoverable prospective oil resource of 380 million barrels, representing 38 million barrels net to Raisama.

Raisama has entered into an agreement (NZOG Term Sheet) with New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd (NZOG) to acquire a 10% participating interest in the offshore Petroleum Exploration Permit 51311 situated in the Taranaki Basin offshore New Zealand (PEP 51311), by funding 20% of the dry hole costs (up to a cap of US$3 million) for the Kaupokonui exploration well.  The permit work program requires that an exploration well be drilled on PEP 51311 in 2011. Water depths in the permit range from approximately 30 to 150 metres.

Location: The Taranaki Basin permit PEP 51311 was first awarded in January 2009, it is located to the east of the Marri Oilfield (51 mmbbls oil) and southwest of the Kupe field development (288 Bcf gas and 27 mmbbls condensate) – Figure 1 Kupe itself lies 26 kilometres from the coast of North Island.

Fig 1: The Taranaki Basin illustrating the PEP 51311 Block
and showing the principal leads and prospects

Technical assessment and prospectivity:

Shortly after the award of the permit, a total of 500 kilometres of 2D seismic data was acquired and subsequently interpreted, along with more than 2,300 kilometres of vintage seismic (which was reprocessed in 2009). First and second year work programs were all completed within the first year. The permit is in good standing and all work program obligations have been met.

Fig 2: A seismic cross section of the Taranaki Basin illustrating the location of PEP 51311, the Kakapo Prospect lying between the existing Maari and Kupe fields

The interpretation effort has yielded a number of leads and prospects within the permit boundary, including a large prospect –  Kakapo.  The operator has estimated that the Kakapo prospect may have mean prospective resources of greater than 200 million barrels.

Fig 3: PEP 51311 block – Taranaki Basin, showing the principal prospect – Kaupolonui and adjacent wells

Table 1: Operators estimated Kaupokonui EUR – Oil Case

Table 2: Operators estimated Kaupolonui EUR – Gas Case