First crude flows from offshore Maari oil field

The first production well the MR3P8, was hooked-up by operator OMV on Wednesday, 27 February to the production facilities onboard the floating production and offtake (FPSO) vessel Raroa moored at the field.

Over its 10-15 year life Maari, over 35 km south of the Maui gas field, is expected to produce some 50 million barrels of oil from the primary Moki zone with peak production of 30,000 bbl/d expected in 2010.

Helmut Langanger, OMV executive board member for exploration and production, said from the Austrian company’s head office in Vienna that Maari “has the potential to establish OMV as the largest liquid hydrocarbon producer in New Zealand.”

Wellington-based subsidiary OMV New Zealand Ltd has a 69% interest in PMP 38160 with other Maari partners Todd Energy 16%, Horizon Oil International 10% and Cue Taranaki 5%.

The Minister of Energy and Resources, Gerry Brownlee, said the development of Maari is beneficial to New Zealand's economic development. It has created work in the Taranaki region and will assists in royalties to the Crown.

"In fact it's estimated the Crown will receive revenue of $1.5 billion in royalties and taxes over the life of the field," Mr Brownlee said.

"These are just some of the downstream benefits from encouraging oil exploration in this country and I am keen to accelerate exploration here," he said.

Drilling and equipping of a second production well MR4P9, is now complete. The 9-½” horizontal section of the MR4P9 was drilled over 2,000 m in good quality, oil-filled reservoir. The lower completion assembly consisting of wire-wrapped screens was successfully installed in the horizontal section. Total measured depth of MR4P9 is 4,323 metres (m).

This second well is planned to connect to the FPSO in the second week of March.

The Ensco 107 rig has also drilled the third production well MR5P12 to 2,090 m and 10-3/4” intermediate casing set at 2,085 m.

The forward plan is to drill and complete the third well, followed by three water injector wells and then the final two oil production wells.

After the Moki sand wells at Maari are completed an appraisal well will be drilled on the nearby Manaia prospect. Horizon gave higher estimates of recoverable oil in the main Moki reservoir at Maari. “The proven and probable (2P) production profile forecasts recoverable volumes of 61 million barrels of oil from the Moki reservoir over the 22 year term of the Petroleum Mining Permit”, Horizon Oil said.

Sources: OMV, Horizon and Lindsay Clark