Greymouth picks up Kowhai
5:00AM
Thursday May 08, 2008
By Grant Bradley
Privately owned Greymouth Petroleum has bought Swift Energy's remaining New Zealand assets, including Swift's 80 per cent working interest in the Kowhai gas condensate discovery in Taranaki.
Greymouth Petroleum chief executive Mark Dunphy said the purchase, for an undisclosed sum, was a valuable addition to the company's gas and condensate properties in the area.
Late last year Houston-based Swift sold $115 million in gas fields, permits and equipment to Contact Energy and Origin Energy as it rationalised its operations here.
The Kowhai discovery is contained within the permit area PEP 38742, neighbouring Greymouth's Turangi mining permit, and is located close to a number of other Greymouth permits.
The Swift buy follows the purchase by Greymouth of Petrochem Limited, which holds the remaining 20 per cent working interest in the Kowhai discovery.
Head of research at McDouall Stuart Securities John Kidd said the area was "very good real estate", surrounded by a number of significant commercial discoveries, Turangi, Mangahewa and Pohokura all included.
"Greymouth declares Kowhai as a gas condensate discovery, which is encouraging as the field has been living below the radar before now. No official reserve data has yet been declared from Kowhai, but it is encouraging to hear of another apparent addition to the national gas stock," Kidd said.
Greymouth says Kowhai gas is to be offered for sale as spot gas in the market established by the company in 2006.
Greymouth Petroleum holds the Turangi, Kowhai, Moturoa, Kaimiro, Ngatoro, Surrey, Windsor and Radnor oil and gas fields in Taranaki and other exploration properties in the province. It also holds permits in the Great South Basin off Southland.
In Chile, Greymouth's Petromagallanes branch operation holds significant exploration properties through Chile's Straits of Magellan and on Tierra del Fuego.
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