Patience is the watchword with Cardiff-3, which hit 4,300 meters this morning.
We've got strong gas shows in the target formations penetrated to date – as expected – with strong mudlog shows of up to 85% total gas readings in the top sections of the Kapuni Formation. But we need to be patient with this play, and are moving ahead slow and steady, trusting our experienced team as we drill through the lower K2 formation towards our final target at about 4,700m.
We're looking at three separate zones that may warrant completion: we're well into two of them so far, but still headed for the K3E Sands, our primary target. Then we’ll decide if interpreted data supports completing and production testing the well. Each zone will be evaluated independently and analyzed to determine if commercial production is a reality, starting with un-stimulated testing for a minimum 30-day flow period, then shut in for a pressure / temperature build-up, and then maybe a fracture stimulation of the well in early 2014.
This play has the potential to increase TAG’s corporate NPV by three to four times if we're successful, so as New Zealand Country Manager Randy Toone says, “We're not going to hurry anything just to try and create market excitement.” One step at a time, so far so good!