SEAPEX Exploration Conference 2017

Fairmont Hotel, Singapore

26–28th April 2017

Day: Wednesday 26 April Session: 4

Time: 5:25pm

New Zealand’s Diverse Sedimentary Basins

Chris Uruski
OMV New Zealand Limited

OMV became active in New Zealand in 1999 after acquiring a 30% share of the Maari oil field.
Since then, OMV’s presence in New Zealand has steadily grown, resulting in the current position
(Fig. 1) where OMV is the largest acreage holder of exploration and production licence acreage in
New Zealand. Our exploration program is underpinned by our share in production from the Maari
oil field and from the Maui and Pohokura gas-condensate fields.

Figure 1: OMV’s current acreage in New Zealand basins

Today, OMV is the operator or a partner in exploration permits in three major sedimentary basins
around the country; Taranaki (NWNZ), the East Coast (NENZ) and the Great South Basin (SENZ;
Fig. 2). The geology of these regions is varied and complex, while lightly explored with the drill
bit.

The Taranaki Basin extends from onshore across the continental shelf and into the New Caledonia
Trough, extending for more than 1,000km within New Zealand’s maritime territory and forming a
component of a much larger system of interconnected depocentres including the Northland and
Reinga basins. Basin formation started with back-arc rifting along the Gondwana margin and
continued with deposition of coal-bearing source rocks during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene.
Development of the present plate boundary through the Neogene led to inversion of many
structures and the formation of the traps at Maui, Pohokura and Maari as well as other fields in the
basin.

South East Asia Exploration – Doing More with Less

Copyright © 2017 by Southeast Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX)
The East Coast Basin formed part of the Gondwana margin subduction complex until the
Hikurangi Plateau docked and initiated a long development as a passive margin. Neogene
subduction gathered up thick sediments deposited across the margin into a large-scale fold and
thrust belt that has never been properly explored despite numerous oil and gas seeps onshore and
good shows in all three offshore wells.

Figure 2: New Zealand’s sedimentary basins are grouped by geographic location as well as geological
history into three main regions; NW, NE and SE. The solid yellow curves denote New Zealand’s exclusive
economic zone and the dashed yellow curves mark the edge of New Zealand’s extended continental shelf.

The Canterbury-Great South Basin is part of a relatively shallow region of continental crust that
contains a number of depocentres. Rifting created accommodation space that was filled by thick
sediments of Cretaceous age stating with terrestrial units including coal measures and eventually
being inundated by marine deposits. Clastic sediments continued to be supplied to the western side
of the basin, while carbonates were deposited in the east. Neogene compression affected only the
western part of the basin. An active petroleum system is proven in this basin.
Understanding of the geology of these basins is the key to exploration success and OMV is
increasing its understanding by data acquisition and by thorough application of science and
knowledge combined with a considered investment policy

Speaker Biography

Chris Uruski worked for GNS Science around the fringes of the New Zealand petroleum industry
for 25 years before taking the plunge and joining OMV about five years ago. Despite the change in
role from gamekeeper to poacher he remains convinced that only the surface has been scratched of
New Zealand’s petroleum potential.
New Zealand’s varied
basins

Chris Uruski

OMV New Zealand Ltd

April, 2017

OMV Upstream
OMV concessions in New Zealand
 Taranaki Exploration Permits
 51906 – 804 km2
 57075 – 1,365
 60089 – 2,314
 60091 – 2,241
 60092 – 2,363
 60093 – 2,135
 East Coast Permit
 57073 – 9,800 km2
 GSB Permits
 50119 – 16,715 km2

Total area:  54863 – 8,507

 Mining Permits
47,265 km2
 381012 – 785 km2
 38160 – 80
 38154 - 156

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Sedimentary basins of New Zealand
 Many basins, particularly those in the Northeastern
sector were initiated along the ancient Gondwana
subduction margin

 Back-arc rifting, pre- and post break-up rifting

contributed to the evolution of some basins while
initiating others

 The effects of the development of the present-day

plate boundary over-printed many basins variably,
depending on distance from the boundary

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Plate tectonics – pre-break-up

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Plate tectonics – post break-up

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Northwest New Zealand

Taranaki
Northland
Deep-water
Challenger
Taranaki
Plateau
Reinga

Bellona

West
New
Norfolk Lord Howe
Caledonia
Ridge Rise
Trough

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 Transect across northern Taranaki
Northwest ~ 200 km

~ 100 km

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Transect across Southern Taranaki

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 Examples of un-drilled prospects
Pukeko-1 Te Whatu-2
PEP 57075 – North Taranaki
Cloudy Bay
Cretaceous
Closure Top Cretaceous Te Whatu
Reservoir Map Cretaceous
Closure

SHALLW

DEEP

Basement Structure Map

Basement Structure Map
PEP 60091 – South Taranaki

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 Northwest New Zealand Summary

 Taranaki has produced more than 2 billion boe from a

small area
 Source rocks are oil-prone Late Cretaceous coal-bearing
unit
 Despite more than 40 years of offshore exploration,
numerous possible traps across the region have yet to be
drilled

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Northeast New Zealand

Hikurangi
Plateau South
Fiji

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 Gondwana Margin – Pegasus Basin

PEG10-21

 Cretaceous and Paleogene ponded basins on Chatham margin, Neogene on East

Coast
 Regional BSR and numerous bright spots

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Learning from East Coast wells

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Source rocks

Paleocene
Waipawa Fm.
up to 16 mmbbl/km2

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 Clastic Reservoir Facies
1,000.0

 Preconceptions:
NZ East Coast Basin
Miocene Clastic Reservoirs  No reservoir
 Thin beds only
100.0

Mainly
Takiritini and
 Actually:
Makaretu Fms.
K (mD) 10.0
 Neogene sands have good
Mainly
reservoir potential
Whakataki Fm.  The low-porosity, low-
permeability examples
1.0
mostly represent thin-
bedded facies

0.1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Ø (%)

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 Petroleum system?
Mature source rocks ? Reservoir facies? Traps ? Large leads?

Paleocene
Waipawa Fm.
up to 16 mmbbl/km2

PEP 57073

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Northeast New Zealand Summary
 More than 300 oil and gas seeps and marine source rocks are
known from onshore geology
 Source rocks are likely to be present offshore as there are
numerous seeps and DHIs, including bottom simulating
reflections
 Sub-commercial gas discoveries have been made onshore
and 60% of wells drilled onshore encountered oil and/or gas
shows
 Only three wells have been drilled offshore, all of which
encountered gas shows

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 Southeast New Zealand
Christchurch

Dunedin Canterbury
Stewart Is.

Great South
Auckland Is.

Campbell Plateau

Campbell Is.

Bounty Is.

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Southeast New Zealand
 The C/GSB are components of a basin system within the Campbell
Plateau
 The basin was formed by rifting leading up to separation of the New
Zealand continental block from Antarctica and Australia
 A Paleogene rifting episode is documented, particularly in the
southwest around the Tara and Toroa wells
 Neogene compression reversed some of the rift faults enough to create
the large Toroa swell and some minor thrust faults close inshore
 Fourteen wells have been drilled in this 250,000 km2 region.
 Three sub-commercial discoveries of gas-condensate are recognised
 Oil shows are present in several wells

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Comparable basins

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General stratigraphy of the GSB

Penrod Group

Laing Fm.

Wickcliffe Fm.  Index map shows

local onshore
Taratu & Tartan Fms. geology and
Wickcliffe Fm.
bathymetry (100 m
contours), wells and
Hoiho Group location of seismic
panel

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Source rock distribution
K20 distribution

K40 distribution

Location of next slide

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Distribution of reservoir facies

 Sand-rich sediment supplied during lowstands deposited as pro-delta turbidites

 Much sand may also have been re-worked subsequently by bottom currents

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Southeast New Zealand Summary
 Seismic coverage is generally restricted to the C/GSB, although some
legacy seismic indicates other significant depocentres

 Source rock successions and reservoir facies are present and drilled

 Comparisons with analogue basins and modelling suggest that a mix of

oil and gas has been expelled from known source rocks

 Numerous large, undrilled potential traps are present across the region

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Conclusions
 New Zealand’s sedimentary basins were
formed by subduction, back-arc, pre- and
post-break-up rifting and collision
 Most basins contain terrestrial source rocks
while those in the northeast are marine
 All basins have multiple large undrilled
structures
 Geology is complex and varied and the key

1,500 Km
has yet to be found that will unlock New
Zealand’s full potential

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