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Maari platform workover unit enables hookup to Manaia oil pool
10 August 2010 - The permanent workover rig unit now installed on the Maari oil field platform offshore South Taranaki has run an upper completion of the well into the Manaia oil pool over 7 km away from the platform.
Sources: Horizon Oil and Lindsay Clark
Maari partner Horizon Oil said in its June quarter report said that the long MN1 well to the Mangahewa pool in the Manaia structure was now undergoing a hook-up to the Maari production system.
The Maari platform workover unit, commissioned in early May, is enabling the restoration of Maari production levels and the post completion of development drilling operations, Horizon Oil said.
The workover unit was then assigned to the MR5 and MR3 wells, bringing them back on line as producing wells. The two wells had been shut-in for some time with pump failures. It was also used to make extra perforations in the MR7 water injection well to increase water pressure on the oil reservoir. Production and performance have both increased as a result of these workovers.
Horizon Oil said that successful use of the workover unit will also enable any downhole information gained to be used for future preventative maintenance programmes.
In other areas, the Maari partners (led by operator OMV) are currently carrying out subsurface and reservoir modeling of the various productive zones at the greater Maari field. The modeling aims to design a development scheme to exploit all the commercially viable oil and gas accumulations in the Maari permit area, building on the understanding gained through the development drilling.
The Maari field has now produced a total of 9.2 million barrels of oil up to 28 July 2010. First oil began flowing in March 2009.
Horizon Oil said early results were encouraging from the processing of seismic data from PEP 51313, in which the company has a 30 per cent interest. PEP 51313 lies immediately south and west of the Maari field.
A 204 sq km 3D seismic survey was acquired in April-May by the Reflect Resolution vessel covering the Pike, Paua and Matariki prospects that lie to the south of Maari. The survey was designed to link in with the existing 3D coverage of the Maari and Manaia structures. The 3D seismic data will help fully evaluate the three prospects for drilling in the 2011 / 2012 summer weather window.
The survey vessel also acquired two additional 2D lines over the Te Whatu and Pukeko prospects to the west of Maari in PEP 51313 to assist in the planning of a larger 2D seismic survey to be recorded over those prospects in 2011.
