TAG Oil Welcomes Drilling Consents

TAG Oil Welcomes Drilling Consents

Media Statement 18 March 2013

For immediate

TAG Oil said today it was striving to leave the smallest possible environmental footprint in any oil and exploration work it undertakes on the East Coast.

Chief Executive Garth Johnson said TAG has long believed the region could hold significant oil and gas reserves

Mr Johnson said the two exploratory wells which have today been approved by Horizons Regional Council are the next step in an extensive work programme to determine what oil and gas reserves actually exist.

“These two wells are conventional vertical wells that will not be fracked.

“The aim is to drill straight down into an area of interest to determine what is there,” he said.

Mr Johnson said TAG Oil has four sites which are safely producing oil and gas in Taranaki.

“We will carry out all work on the East Coast in the same careful, methodical and safe way that we have worked in Taranaki for over a decade,” he said.

Mr Johnson said work would start immediately to meet permit conditions set down by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals.

--

Since these consents were lodged Apache Corporation has ended its involvement in New Zealand and Tag Oil now has a 100% stake in the permits in question. Tag Oil’s New Zealand subsidiaries will be conducting these drilling operations.

ENDS

© Scoop Media