New Zealand-focused exploration company Trans-Orient Petroleum Ltd. has completed the first-stage 487m (1,600 ft) section of the Boar Hill-1 wildcat well located in the East Coast Basin of New Zealand's North Island. Boar Hill-1 was drilled in two stages in order to provide critical information for the deeper section of the Boar Hill-1 well, and to avoid any potentially problematic surface drilling.

The shallow section of the well has provided some encouraging preliminary data, as drill cuttings "head gas" analysis indicated progressively more oil-rich readings as the well penetrated the Oligocene strata, reaching full depth in the Weber Formation.

The Boar Hill structure is located within the 100% controlled, 1.6 million-acre Petroleum Exploration Permit 38349, and was originally defined by the New Zealand Geological Survey in 1938. These early geological mapping expeditions also noted the existence of oil and gas seeps in the general area of these structures. In 2008, Trans-Orient acquired and re-interpreted a series of modern 2-D seismic lines over the Boar Hill structure, confirming sub-surface correlation to the earlier NZGS surface mapping. The Boar Hill-1 well is located at the crestal peak of the defined structure.

Planning is now underway to drill the main Boar Hill-1 well to fully penetrate the underlying Waipawa Black Shale and Whangai Formation fractured oil-shale source-rocks at an anticipated depth of 1600m (5,250 ft).

Tags: Trans-Orient Petroleum Ltd.