On the hunt for Kaipara oil

A privately owned New Zealand exploration company is to embark on an oil and gas hunt around the Kaipara Harbour.

Kea Petroleum has been granted a five-year permit covering an area of 2157sq km of land surrounding the Kaipara Harbour.

Veteran oilman Dave Bennett co-owns Kea and says it will start a $200,000 gravity and soil gas geochemical survey in February.

He said the Kaipara had barely been explored for the past 50 years, although there were historic shows of hydrocarbons near Dargaville.

The geology made it one of the more promising parts of the Northland Basin.

Dr Bennett, who has a doctorate in geophysics, said that basin was a continuation of the Taranaki Basin but was virtually unexplorable onshore because of a rock slide originating near Fiji 30 million years ago that covered most of the Northland peninsula - except around the Kaipara area.

He rated prospects for oil and gas around the Kaipara as about equal.

Gas could be used to fuel Genesis Energy's proposed power station in the area. The Kaipara's proximity to Auckland and its pipeline infrastructure would make any discovery easy to develop.

Kea had discussed its plans with iwi groups in the area and assured them it was not interested in drilling in the Kaipara Harbour - which was off-limits - but on land.

The initial geophysical work would be done with handheld probes to get soil samples and this could lead to more expensive seismic surveying in more promising areas. Exploratory drilling could then follow.

Any drilling was subject to Resource Management Act procedures. He said onshore drilling in the Taranaki had established a rigorous system of environmental checks.

"I don't anticipate particular problems, it's certainly true that there hasn't been exploration for a long time in the Kaipara but the basic (consent) methodology is well established."

Bennett was the exploration manager for New Zealand Oil & Gas when the Kupe South field was discovered and a former chief executive of Austral-Pacific Energy which developed the oil-producing Cheal field.

Bennett said during the past 35 years he had searched for oil "virtually everywhere" in New Zealand.

Kea has alliance partners Australian listed company Rawson Resources and Australian private company Hardie Oceanic. It has two onshore permit areas in Taranaki where exploratory drilling will start next year.