AWE provides Pateke-4H drilling update offshore New Zealand

Offshore staff

SYDNEY, Australia – AWE Ltd. (ASX: AWE) reports that the Pateke-4H development well side track was at a measured depth of 3,845 m (12,615 ft), directionally drilling ahead with a 12¼-in. drilling assembly.

The company plans to drill this section of the well to a measured depth of approximately 4,110 m (13,484 ft), landing at a 90° angle, and then install the 9⅝-in. casing. The well will then be drilled horizontally through the F10 reservoir to a planned measured depth of 5,361 m (17,589 ft).

The Kapuni F10 sandstone objective has already been intersected on prognosis, with oil shows and real-time logging measurements indicating the likely presence of an oil-bearing reservoir. However, the commercial significance of the oil shows will not be clear until the horizontal drilling has been completed.

The Pateke-4H development well is in PMP 38158 in theTaranaki basin offshore New Zealand. PMP 38158 contains the Tui, Amokura, and Pateke fields.

Pateke-4H is targeting a mapped northern extension of the currently producing Pateke field. The well is being drilled in water depth of approximately 124 m (407 ft) with a planned total measured depth of 5,361 m (17,589 ft), including a 1,272-m (4,173-ft) horizontal section. If successful, the well will be completed for subsequent tieback to the Tui FPSO, theUmuroa, for production in 2015.

PMP 38158 joint venture partners are operatorAWE Ltd. (via subsidiaries), 57.5%; New Zealand Oil & Gas (via subsidiaries), 27.5%; and Pan Pacific Petroleum (via subsidiaries), 15.0%.

03/25/2014