Fletcher Challenge Energy Taranaki Limited's (FCET) exploration strategy is to strive for short term results whilst maintaining longer term capabilities. It is a central tenet that deep local knowledge, combined with worldwide experience in the international oil business, will provide the blueprint for success. The 1979-86 boom in the oil business, driven largely by the oil price escalation effect of the Iranian Revolution, caused a massive increase in exploration activity. In retrospect, many dollars were spent chasing new opportunities that would fail to meet current risk/reward criteria. A poor prospect is still a poor prospect, however, even at $100 per barrel. In the late eighties and early nineties, both Shell and Amoco published information on wildcat success ratios with remarkably similar results. These showed that where a petroleum system could be proved to exist, considerable financial returns could be made from exploration. FCET has recently used a similar approach by focussing on proven play concepts in the Taranaki Basin, where it has built up a large knowledge base from its extensive exploration activity. In addition, this data base has enabled it to perform rigorous benchmarking to provide reality-checks in reserves estimation and chances of commercial (rather than merely geological) success. The utilisation of project management techniques, and identification of all geological hazards, has ensured a safe and timely delivery of drilling programmes. In 1997, Fletcher Challenge Limited (FCL) concentrated its onshore exploration activity in the commercially-proven Overthrust Belt of eastern Taranaki, and was rewarded with the discovery of the Piakau Field.
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