Ah yes ! Found the relevant information. Seems that some damage happened to the cranes on the rig during drilling Rockhopper-1. Now I think Kan Tan IV has had that problem before. I think it had to have repairs when it got to Australia to start drilling wells there.
Anyway, as you can see in this following announcement the repairs were completed on 19th Jan and drilling of the sidetrack recommenced and should be about the main reservoir now. So that would mean 2 weeks from now should see the rig finished its operations there, plugged and abandoned and be ready for the right conditions to head to NZ waters.
If it is at Hoki by late February we will be lucky IMHO.
ASX Release 21 January 2010 Rockhopper 1 and Rockhopper 1/ST 1 Exploration Well Update, Bass Basin, Tasmania Progress and Status: Origin Energy, on behalf of the T/18P Joint Venture, advises that as at 06:00 hours EDT on Thursday 21 January 2010 the current operation at Rockhopper 1/ST 1 is drilling 8 hole at a depth of 2,106m. So far 136m of the sidetrack has been drilled. Repairs to the cranes on the Kan Tan IV drilling rig were completed at 17:30 on 19 January 2010 at which time operationson the Rockhopper 1/ST 1 well commenced. The side track is designed to appraise the oil and gas zones discovered in the Rockhopper 1 well and is being drilled to intersect the main reservoir sections approximately 1.3km south and down dip from their penetration in Rockhopper 1. This will allow the volume of oil and gas discovered in the Rockhopper structure to be fully evaluated. It is anticipated that from today the sidetrack will take approximately 1 week to reach the primary reservoir section and a further 2 weeks to complete data acquisition and plugging and abandoning operations. As planned, the sidetrack and the original Rockhopper 1 well will be plugged and abandoned.
PPP Price at posting:
35.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held