From local Taranaki newspaper

A Taranaki judge has reserved his decision in the case involving the alleged theft of potentially multi-million dollar information on oil and gas discoveries within the region.

The Crown case is that the "secret recipes" contained in highly confidential computer files owned by Tag Oil (NZ) Ltd were stolen by James Winston Watchorn, 42.

Watchorn was a former production manager for Tag before joining the company's direct competitor, New Zealand Energy Corp.

Watchorn denies three counts of dishonestly accessing the exploration and production company's computer on June 7, 2012.

By August the same year he was working for NZEC.

Yesterday in the New Plymouth District Court, Judge Allan Roberts heard submissions from Crown solicitor Cherie Clarke and defence counsel Susan Hughes QC.

Watchorn illegally and without claim of right downloaded thousands of potentially valuable files on to his hard drive before leaving to join NZEC, Clarke said.

In doing so, Watchorn deliberately targeted and downloaded seismic and other geotechnical information which revealed the highly successful "secret recipes" used by Tag to find oil and gas in Taranaki, Clarke said.

By using the methods, Tag achieved 20 strikes from 20 wells, a success unheard of in the oil exploration industry.

The information explaining how they achieved this was very valuable and sought after by competitors, in particular NZEC.