Correction to: International Journal of Earth Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-018-01675-6

“The authors wish to rescind the speculated correlation of the northern oils with the upper Paleocene Waipawa Formation given that these oils do not match the carbon isotopes or C30 24-propyldiacholestane ratios of Waipawa Formation rocks or Waipawa-sourced oils (Sykes et al. 2012). Instead, we now infer the northern and southern oils to be derived from separate organofacies within a Cretaceous, Whangai-type marine source rock unit, with the northern organofacies being more oxic and having more terrigenous organic matter input than the southern organofacies. The actual source rock unit, however, remains uncertain as none of the known occurrences of Whangai Formation have any significant oil potential”.