The drilling for gas and oil at Great South Basin, which is at South Island of New Zealand, has been abandoned by Todd Energy and ExxonMobil. On Monday, the joint venture gave up the interest in permit PEP 50117. They blamed the remote location, the tough conditions and high technical risk for the action.

The location of the ExxonMobil's permit block was has a water depth of 500m to over 1000m and it was 100m from shore.

Todd Energy Managing Director Richard Tweedie commented that since last three years, they have acquired up-to-date seismic data and have evaluated the area completely. He further commented that the data collected has indicated that area is highly remote and it constitutes high technical risk and the operating environment is harsh.

He further commented that all these factors have made the opportunity to turn unappealing enough to leave. In July 2007, the joint venture was started between ExxonMobil and Todd energy.

They had tried to invite more partners, but nobody was interested. Last year, the both partners had postponed their deadline by one year, for going further with exploration. Energy Minister had defended the decision by saying that before the final commitment is made by the company; more work is needed to be done.