Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Aug. 27 -- Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd., Sydney, which operates Tui oil field off New Zealand, reported a 15% increase in the field's proved and probable reserves after conducting an interim post-drilling reserves review.
AWE says that 2P reserves now stand at 32 million bbl, up from 27.9 million bbl reported prior to drilling the development wells.
This represents an additional $280 million in revenues at current world oil prices and only minor associated operating costs.
Tui lies in the Ttaranaki basin off the west coast of the North Island. It is producing from four wells—two in Tui and one each in associated Amokura and Pateke fields—via the Umuroa floating production, storage, and offloading vessel.
The field came on stream in late July and has produced about 1 million bbl in its first month of operation. Current production is averaging 47,000 b/d, and debottlenecking work is being carried out to try to achieve 50,000 b/d, which is the nameplate capacity for the FPSO.
Total production capability from the four wells is 100,000 b/d, but this is being choked back to the rate that Umuroa can handle.
The first shipment of oil has been delivered to Caltex's Australian refineries across the Tasman Sea in Brisbane and Sydney.
AWE has begun a more-comprehensive reserves study incorporating production trends from the wells and reprocessed 3D seismic data. This work, to be completed late this fall, will incorporate an evaluation of the economic potential of undeveloped reserves in the area.
