Maari oil deliveries slated to start in early April

The first shipment of New Zealand Maari field crude is expected to be offloaded from the Raora floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel during the first week of April.

March 24, 2009

Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Mar. 24 -- The first shipment of New Zealand Maari field crude is expected to be offloaded from the Raora floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel during the first week of April.

High flow rates from the first and second development wells (MR3P8 and MR4P9) have enabled the shipment to take place several weeks earlier than expected.

The two wells currently are flowing a total of 26,000 b/d. The Raora FPSO is capable of storing 600,000 bbl of oil.

The third development well has reached its total depth, and completion work is proceeding. It is expected to come on stream the week of Mar. 30.

In the meantime, the Ensco 107 jack up is now drilling the first of three water injections wells in the field. Once these are completed the rig will return to development drilling of the final two wells later in the year to then ramp up production to a planned gross production of 35,000 b/d.

Maari partners are OMV New Zealand as operator holding 69%, Todd Energy 16%, Horizon Oil 10%, and Cue Energy Resources 5%.