New Zealand – Lease Round Promotion

The Great South Basin is the largest of several basins that lie on the Campbell Plateau to the southeast of the South Island of New Zealand. From the Otago coast, it extends southeast for 250 km with its southern limit about 400 km from Dunedin. It has a northeast trend that parallels the South Island. Most of the basin lies beyond the modern shelf area in water depths greater than 500m (with about one third greater than 1,000m). The basin contains over 7,500m of Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments within a series of northeast trending grabens and half-grabens. More...

Exploration and Production in New Zealand

The acreage involved in the Great South Basin bid round is located in exceptionally hostile waters. High waves and strong winds are experienced off the South Island, which result in considerable downtime and higher costs, compared with exploration programmes conducted in more favorable conditions. The opening of the bid round after a period of twenty years of no activity is a direct result of the industry having little option but to advance into deeper, harsher conditions. More...

On 31 July 2006, New Zealand’s Associate Minister of Energy Harry Duynhoven formally opened the Great South Basin bid round. In total 40 blocks are on offer, covering an area of over 300,000 sq km located in the frontier region off the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Bidding will close on 31 March 2007. In support of the acreage release, Crown Minerals has made available 8,000km of existing 2D seismic that has been re-processed and 3,160 km of new 2D data obtained during March 2006 under the government sponsored DUN 06 seismic survey. Applicants for the blocks, labelled 1 to 40, must include a staged work programme containing the minimum planned exploration activity proposed to be undertaken. Details of the bidding round can be found on the Crown Minerals website: http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/petroleum/blocks/greatsouth.html

Paul Rheinberg is the Regional Manager of the Australasia team for IHS in the UK. In that role, he manages a team of E&P professionals who are dedicated to the acquisition and compilation of data covering all aspects of the upstream industry in Australasia. The data collected is reported in daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports, as well as cartographically and within a global E&P database.

Rheinberg joined IHS in 2003 and has almost 10 years of industry experience.  Prior to joining the Australasia team Rheinberg worked for Waterous & Co, based in London, as an Analyst - Corporate Finance, providing Corporate Finance and Geological support during divestiture programmes undertaken by Waterous in NW Europe and Asia Pacific.

Rheinberg obtained a bachelors degree with honours in Geology from the University of Southampton.

Based in our Tetbury, UK office Paul can be contacted at: paul.rheinberg@ihs.com.