The Great South Basin is an area of mainly sea to the south of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. Starting in the 1960s, the area was explored and drilled for oil deposits by various, mostly international minerals companies — including

Hunt Oil Hunt Oil Co. is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It conducts its main oil production activities in the United States, Canada and, as of 1984, in Yemen. In the past, the company was owned by american oil tyc ...

— but by 1984 all of these companies had left empty-handed. With advances in seismic surveying and drilling technology, hopes have been raised once again for a potential oil strike. Since 2006, new tenders for drilling rights have been issued. In 2010,

Exxon Mobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

and

Todd Energy The Todd Corporation is a large private New Zealand company with a value of $4.3 billion, owned and controlled by the Todd family and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. The corporation is currently led by chairman of the board, Henry Tait ...

relinquished their exploration rights, citing technical difficulties and the harshness of the environment.

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

subsequently purchased a stake in a joint venture headed by

OMV OMV (formerly abbreviation for Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung Aktiengesellschaft ('' en, Austrian Mineral Oil Administration Stock Company'')) is an Austrian multinational integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company which is headquart ...

New Zealand, with drilling announced at the start of 2014. In 2020, OMV plugged and abandoned the well after failing to find any oil. Anadarko Petroleum made a test drilling in the area in early 2014, without success.

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling comp ...

subsequently made a drilling attempt in the same areas later in the year.

References

External links

Oil,Gas & Minerals Of Southland, New Zealand

Crown Minerals Group - Ministry of Economic Development

Zealandia Landforms of Southland, New Zealand Oceanic basins of the Pacific Ocean Geography of the New Zealand seabed {{marine-geo-stub