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New Zealand Regulator Advances Monumental Energy Application for Gas Exploration

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New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals, a natural resources regulator, has accepted an application from Canada's Monumental Energy for a permit to explore the Tirua Point area in New Zealand's Taranaki Basin, enabling it to proceed to government review, Monumental said in a statement on Tuesday.

The application was submitted jointly by Monumental, private company 3TCF and the proposed project operator, New Zealand Energy Corp. and no other competing applications were submitted by the Aug. 12 deadline, Monumental said.

If the permit is granted and final agreements are reached, Monumental will hold a stake of about 60%, 3TCF 30% and NZEC the remaining 10%.

If permits are granted, the three companies plan to form a joint venture and establish operating agreements.

The area covered by the permit extends to about 245 square kilometers of onshore and offshore acreage in the northern Taranaki Basin and preliminary work by the applicants has identified two gas-condensate projects, namely Mauku Northeast and Mangatoa.

Mauku Northeast is an Eocene-age Mangahewa Group prospect, which intersected about 140 meters of net reservoir, Monumental said.

Mangatoa is a deeper offshore asset with a well first drilled in 1986, intersecting about 100 meters of Taniwha Formation at depths of 3,740 and 3,842 below the Kelly bushing, the statement said.

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