Development continues at the Cheal exploration site.
Oil and gas explorer Austral Pacific Energy has reported a net loss of US$13.4 million ($19 million) for 2006 compared with a restated loss for 2005 of US$5.7 million.
Austral's independently assessed 69.5 per cent share of proven undeveloped reserves in the onshore Taranaki basin Cheal oil field
was 1.142 million barrels of oil equivalent, the company said in its annual statement today.
Full production from the Cheal field was expected by the fourth quarter of this year.
Last year Austral secured a US$23 million loan facility to buy the shares of Arrowhead Energy, which holds interests in permits over the Cheal and nearby Kahili fields.
At the Cardiff gas field, also in the onshore Taranaki basin, further testing was due to be carried out in the second half of 2007.
Results of flow testing of the McKee sands in Cardiff-2, undertaken during 2006, showed enough commerciality to secure a mining permit, Austral said.
The next testing would be on the deeper K3E zone in which the majority of the gas/condensate resource was mapped.
Austral is also active in Papua New Guinea, drilling the Douglas-1 exploration well in the second quarter of 2006.
Commercialisation studies were carried out and Austral has signed a memorandum of understanding with Alcan South Pacific to investigate the supply of natural gas to the Gove Refinery in Australia's Northern Territory.
Austral, which last year raised US$6.5 million by the issue of 5 million shares, said it had reached agreement with a group of accredited investors in New Zealand to privately place 2.5 million ordinary shares at a price of US$1.30 per share.
Austral's shares were unchanged on the New Zealand sharemarket today at $2.30, having ranged between $4.25 and $2 in the past year.
- NZPA
