New Zealand Oil & Gas shareholders voted by a ''resounding majority'' in favour of $100million capital being returned to them.
A separate proposal by a lone Dunedin-based shareholder to use $168million from the sale of a Taranaki oil and gas field to undertake deep-water test drilling off the coast of Oamaru was defeated, at a special shareholder meeting in Wellington yesterday.
However, the Barque prospect 60km off Oamaru remains a focus for NZOG, which has ''more than a handful of potential partners'' studying the seismic data for the region, the company said.
Eight test holes have been drilled at sea in the general area since 1985 but none were commercially viable. However, NZOG has estimated recently Barque may hold 11trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.5million barrels of oil or gas condensate liquid.
The Dunedin shareholder's resolution; that NZOG retain the $168million plus other cash reserves to drill two wells off shore Oamaru for gas and or oil, was defeated on a show of hands.
Despite the defeat, NZOG chief executive Andrew Jeffries said he remained ''enthusiastic'' about the Canterbury permit and wanted to see it drilled and opened up as ''new North Sea in the South''
He said at an international petroleum conference in Taranaki last month, Barque was identified as ninth in a top-10 list of global oil and gas targets.
''The board has confirmed that if we bring a partner into the Barque prospect and commit to drill, we could be willing to put more of our own capital into well costs, but we will not be reckless about it,'' he said in a statement.
NZOG chairman Rodger Finlay said the company was expecting to receive a final ruling from Inland Revenue on the tax status of the $100million capital return by next week, then would seek final High Court orders approving the scheme of arrangement.
NZOG's aim was to complete the capital return before the end of May, he said. Most recently NZOG had sold its 27.5% stake in the Tui area oil fields off Taranaki to Malaysian-based Tamarind for $US750,000 ($NZ1.081million) having earlier sold its 15% stake in the Kupe oil and gas fields to Genesis Energy for $168million.
