on-shore exploration

Southland has various opportunities for on-shore oil, gas and mineral exploration. Southland lignites has received much attention lately with L&M and Solid Energy undertaking pre-feasibility work on extracting lignite matter and converting it to high quality diesel using the Fisher Tropsch method.

Western Southland

The western Southland region comprises numerous small basins that extend from Te Anau to Waiau and offshore to include the Solander and Baleny basins. The exploration activities from the 1960s to the 1980s saw two offshore and two onshore wells drilled. The full potential of these wells was never tested. While the Te Anau basin has only been thinly explored, the Waiau basin is the best defined of the three Western Southland basins.

L&M Petroleum has been drilling on-shore around the Waiau basin in Western Southland for coal-seam-gas and recently made a significant discovery in the Goodwin-1 exploration well near Ohai. It is likely to take 2-3 years before L&M Petroleum will know whether they can start production. L&M Petroleum has also has a permit to search the Blackmount area.

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