An extension is being sought by New Zealand Oil & Gas for another deepwater oil and gas exploration prospect in the Great South Basin.
The Toroa prospect, about 200km south of Dunedin is 100% owned by NZOG and it wants a drilling extension from 2020 pushed out to 2022, to align with other, separate permits offshore from Oamaru.
Oil companies must either commit to drill a given permit by a certain time, or relinquish them altogether.
The coalition Government, while having banned any new offshore permits anywhere around the country, has been broadly criticised for allowing oil and gas permits extensions.
The latest extension was NZOG's Canterbury basin permit, while Austrian giant OMV was granted a two-year extension last October for up to 10 prospects off Dunedin, and now has a marine consent application before the Environmental Protection Authority being considered for that area.
In an ''activity report'' update to the NZX yesterday, NZOG said the Government was considering an application for an extension to the Toroa permit work programme, to align with the extension period at Clipper, off Oamaru's coastline.
''Although the Toroa well commitment date is another year away, due in 2020, it is expected that a potential farm-in arrangement would be aligned with the Clipper permit, and a well commitment would be influenced by progress in other prospects in the basin,'' the company said.
NZOG was granted a three-year extension until April 2022 for its Canterbury permits in April, a 150sqkm area 60km off the coast from Oamaru, encompassing the Clipper and Barque prospects.
Yesterday, NZOG said the extended work programme for Clipper would allow ''a re-set of the marketing campaign'' to attract partners to the joint venture, which has been ongoing for almost three years.
Clipper contained the Barque prospect.
NZOG said the joint venture would expect other prospects in the Canterbury and Great South Basins may be drilled ahead of Barque, which would influence the Barque prospect's future.
-NZOG has stakes in New Zealand and Indonesian oil-producing fields, plus a joint venture off Australia's northwest shelf.
