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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 02:50 GMT | more >>

Maari partners put back platform delivery



By Upstream staff 

Partners in New Zealand’s Maari joint venture have delayed the delivery of the wellhead platform to the offshore field on New Zealand’s Taranaki basin following a delay in the arrival of the jack-up Ensco 107 on to drill development wells.

Minority partner Horizon said the platform was now expected to be installed in the field by June next year following discussions with Dockwise, which will dry tow the platform from Singapore. The Ensco 107 rig is now expected on the field in April after completing work for another client, Horizon said.

The company said the later dates would allow more building and installation work to be done on the platform before it is moved to the field.

Horizon said its share of the cost of the wellhead platform had increased to $45.7 million from an original projected price of $36.5 million in October 2005. The platform is now 49% complete with 90% of goods and services now tendered, it said.

The floating production, storage and offloading vessel Raroa which will work in tandem with the platform is 73% complete at Singapore’s Jurong shipyard, Horizon said.

Austria's OMV operates the Maari field with a 69% stake together with Todd Energy (16%), Horizon Oil (10%) and Cue Energy (5%).

Horizon also said the Sevmorneftegeofizika survey vessel Professor Polshkov had been hired to shoot about 2500 kilometres of 2D seismic data on Block G10/48 and 3000 kilometres on Block G11/48 on the southern end of the Pattani Trough off Thailand.

The survey work is intended to identify gas targets for drilling on both blocks starting in March next year, Horizon said.

The blocks are operated by Singapore-based Pearl Energy.


Tuesday, 31 July, 2007, 17:43 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 31 July, 2007, 17:43 GMT

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