L&M Petroleum is set to start an exploration drive in New Zealand’s onshore Western Southland basin permit areas after an initial analysis estimated they contain up to 300 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane (CBM) gas.
The analysis identified Eocene Beaumont coals in three fairways running over some 85 kilometres in the permits.
The Wellington-based company plans to carry out an exploration drive to shore up the CBM resources.
The campaign will focus initially on the Takitimu South fairway, in northeast of the company’s PEP 38226 Waiau permit, the southern end of which bounds the Ohai coalfield, where both Eocene Beaumont coals and older Cretaceous Morley coals have been previously found.
The outfit will drill three wells at Waiau next month, plus shoot 15 kilometres of new 2D seismic in each of its three permits to confirm additional CBM targets. Depending on the outcome of seismic data, LMP will drill up to five additional wells.
LMP said the work programme will cost around NZ$2 million (US$1.55 million).
“This is a very exciting programme. Our Western Southland basin permits appear to be some of the few that contain both conventional petroleum exploration opportunities, such as the deeper Whitestone and Otahu structures that we are currently seeking farm in partners for drilling later this year, as well as shallower CBM opportunities,” LMP’s managing director, John Bay, said in a statement today.
LMP is dual-listed on both the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.
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