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Monday, 01 December, 2008, 22:50 GMT | more >>

Maari platform lands in New Zealand



By Upstream staff 

The wellhead platform for OMV New Zealand’s Maari project arrived in New Zealand waters today and is on track to start up in the third quarter, which would make OMV the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids in the country.

The 11,000-tonne self-elevating wellhead platform arrived onboard the world’s largest heavy transport vessel, Dockwise’s Blue Marlin, from fabricator Kencana Petroleum of Malaysia.

The platform will be unloaded in the calm waters of Admiralty Bay over the next few days, before being towed to the Maari field, some 80 kilometres off the coast of south Taranaki in waters more than 100 metres deep. Upon arrival at the field, the structure will self-install.

OMV New Zealand’s managing director Steve Hounsell said the trip to Taranaki, and subsequent installation of the platform, was weather dependent and not without technical challenges, reported New Zealand news website Stuff.

The platform will be connected to a leased floating production, storage and offloading vessel called Raroa that is expected to arrive towards the end of the month from Singapore’s Jurong Shipyard.

The FPSO is a converted tanker being supplied by Singapore’s Tanker Pacific Offshore Terminals.

Once the platform is installed, the jack-up drilling rig Ensco 107 will be positioned above it to drill eight development wells.

The Maari oilfield has estimated reserves of about 50 million barrels of oil and a life of between 10 and 15 years.

OMV said first production from Maari was expected in the third quarter, with its daily plateau production rate to be around 35,000 barrels.

Once production started, OMV would be the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids in the country, Stuff reported the company saying.

Maari is owned by a joint venture comprising OMV with 69%, Todd Maari with 16%, Horizon Oil International with 10% and Cue Taranaki with 5%.


Friday, 11 April, 2008, 06:16 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 11 April, 2008, 06:24 GMT

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