Hovering for energy

It’s tough task ­– ferrying blokes, and a few women, and their equipment in and out of some of the most spectacular rugged bush and coastline in the North Island - but someone has to do it.  By Neil Ritchie.

Two of the most enjoyable recent contracts for Precision Helicopters boss Matt Newton have involved just that – helping with a seismic survey in the remote northern Taranaki-southern King Country, and flying new Conservation Minister Tim Groser into the Whanganui National Park.

“While he doesn’t have the superstar status of Tom Cruise, National’s Conservation Minister, Scotsman Tim Groser, was still fun to fly around,” says Newton, who was the Hollywood idol’s personal helicopter pilot during the filming of the Last Samurai movie in Taranaki earlier this decade.

“What would have taken four and a half hours by motor vehicle, took us 18 minutes as we flew into the remote Whakahoro Valley where the Minister stayed at the upmarket Blue Duck Lodge.

“As the new Conservation Minister, he just wanted to learn as much as he could about the geography, biodiversity and other attributes of the park, one of many administered by the Department of Conservation,” recalls Newton of his ministerial assignment.

“Another rugged area we spent more time in was the remote northern Taranaki-southern King Country where we spent several months helping Genesis Energy with its seismic survey over the large Mangatoa gas prospect earlier in 2008.

“It’s an onshore-offshore prospect near the settlement of Waikawau in the Waitomo district – probably one of the most beautiful pieces of coastland I have worked on.

“It’s rugged, with lush dense coastal bush. We were careful to minimise the environmental impact of the survey. Tracks were cut by hand and we planted lots of trees also.”

“The whole job took us almost four months and we rotated pilots, 12 days on, five days off. We also used to sometimes stay with the land crews or seismic crews, in old shearers’ quarters.

“We lived pretty well, had a cook, and often in the evenings after work, the crew would go on hunting or fishing excursions – Waikawau, the land of plenty.”

The transition zone seismic – where most seismic was shot on land but some was done in shallow coastal waters – was the first major exploration project for Genesis Energy since acquiring the licence about two years ago.

Mangatoa could contain up to three trillion cubic feet of gas – about three times as large as the more southern commercial Pohokura field – though its remoteness means it will not be as easy to develop as Pohokura that sits just off the coast from the Maui and Kapuni pipelines and other energy infrastructure. There are also doubts about how easy it will be to extract gas from the tight Mangatoa reservoir.

Australian company Geokinetics was the main seismic survey contractor, while New Plymouth firm BTW Company did the surveying and Wellington’s Webster Drilling & Exploration the shot hole drilling.

Precision Helicopters Ltd (PHL) flew the men and their equipment anywhere they wanted to go.

“As well as flying the various crews in day after day, we also flew in their equipment, which could be anything from small portable drilling rigs, air compressors to explosives,” says Newton.

“The job threw up some challenges for us in the initial stages because the subsurface terrain we were working with was everything from sand on the coast to riverstones, sandstones and, sometimes, solid basement rock.

“It took us about two weeks to develop a technique to work with that variable terrain. In the end we used a combination of an auger, an air hammer and rotary mud; sometimes all three methods were used in the same hole.” 

Onshore seismic programmes involve land crews surveying grids, often several kilometres long and wide, and then drilling a series of shallow shot holes for the seismic crew.

The seismic guys lay out a pattern of geophones on the ground and cables back to the “dog box” – a specialist vehicle that contains sophisticated equipment that records the reflected and refracted sound waves once the small explosive charges are denoted down the holes.

The seismic data gathered is then processed, interpreted and analysed to give a picture of the subsurface terrain and the parts most likely to contain parcels of trapped oil and or gas, perhaps several kilometres under the ground.

One of the next steps in oil and gas exploration is to drill a well that targets one of those identified “prospects or plays”.

“Genesis was a great company to work for, terrific communicators, showing an interest in the work, at the coal face so to speak,” Newton recalls.

Another energy-related contract for PHL last year was helping Government-owned Solid Energy with the topdressing, the spraying of herbicides and insecticides, of its rapeseed crops at the top of the South Island.

Rapeseed is one of many seed crops used in the manufacture of biofuels, with the oil extracted from the rapeseed refined into fuels, principally biodiesel.

PHL also conducts regular maintenance aerial surveys of some of Vector’s high-pressure gas pipeline network that covers over 3000 kilometres of the North Island, as well as parts of lower pressure pipeline systems, or even power lines, such as those owned by Powerco, looking for any damage, breaks or faulty equipment.

Taranaki-headquartered PHL operates out of Urenui, north of New Plymouth, while also maintaining two remote bases at Blenheim and Gore for long-distance contracts.

Newton remains confident about his company and country, despite the global financial storms in other many parts of the world.

“We have a few energy related jobs in the pipeline, with rumours of more seismic surveys, possibly more drilling, in several parts of onshore Taranaki during 2009-10,” he says.

“I expect though that most of our work will continue to be in the agricultural, horticultural and viticultural industries and they will survive any economic downturns.”