TAG Oil Blog

A tanker of TAG’s crude oil drives past the TAG offices, en route from the Omata Tank Farm on the outskirts of New Plymouth, where our oil gets delivered from the Cheal field. 

This has been a busy and exciting couple of weeks for TAG at our Cheal permit: in less than 30 days we tested Cheal-B5 (the third well in our current 10-well drilling campaign) and got it on full time production.

We didn’t know what the results would be at the time of these photos, but after perforation we flow tested 20 meters of continuous oil-and-gas pay within the 35 meters of net pay intercepted in the primary Mt. Messenger target. This is the most extensive pay interval ever recorded by a Cheal well, and includes record porosities of up to 30% and a record 60% total gas kick encountered while drilling.

Over the five-day test period, the discovery well was naturally flowing at an average rate of 1,870 barrels of oil equivalent a day, that’s 1,700 barrels of oil and 1.0 million cubic feet of gas per day flowing through a 40/64" choke. These shots are of perfing day.

TAG's Carey Davis kisses the firing bar for luck.	Dropped the bar...
Everyone grabs something metal on the rig to feel the shots fire. It took nearly a minute-and-a-half for the firing bar to drop the 1700m.	Guns just fired…no immediate pressure response. Big gas wells almost always give immediate pressure response. Could it be oil?
Waiting nervously for pressure response…and a minute after perforation the pressure starts to build. We knew then the news would be good.	B-Site expansion: making room for more B wells.

TAG Oil is proud to support the community by funding “Hot Fire Training” for the Stratford and Eltham Volunteer Fire Brigades. The training helps the volunteer brigade practice their firefighting techniques under real fire conditions at a training facility in Stratford.

They’re a tough and dedicated group, and it’s our pleasure to help them grow more accomplished in this important job. These photos from a recent training really say it all.