Tamarind Resources seek drilling consent off Taranaki Bight

Friday, 4 May 2018

A gas flare from the FPSO Umuroa burning off natural gas as oil is pumped out of the Tui oil field in the Taranaki Basin.

Oil exploration company, Tamarind Resources, plan to start an offshore drilling programme with five new wells in the Taranaki Basin in early 2019.

The Malaysian - owned company, with offices in New Plymouth, have lodged marine consent applications with the Environment Protection Authority to drill five sidetrack development wells in the existing Tui Field.

Tamarind Resources New Zealand country manager Jason Peacock said the drilling programme was scheduled to start in the first half of 2019 but would depend on other factors including completion of the consent submission process, and availability of equipment and plant.

The drilling programme is being completed under permit - PMP 38158 - and is not affected by the Labour Coalition Government's recent announcement to halt permits, Peacock said.

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The company's application, including a 230 page impact assessment report, was lodged with the EPA in March and notified to accept public submissions from May 4 to June 18.

Tamarind have sought consent to drill up to four of its existing five wells in the Tui Field, as well as consent to discharge hazardous materials from the semi-submersible drill rig during the drilling process.

Sidetrack development drilling involved using an existing well bore to another sub-sea site to find oil deposits.

Tamarind's latest application involved the wells being drilled horizontally to get acess to nearby undrained portions of an oil reservoir in the Tui Field within the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The company had considered drilling new wells but opted to use existing wells to lessen the environmental impact, and drilling duration, the impact assessment report said.

The report concluded there would be no impact on fish and marine life from the discharge of material from the rig, and only minimal to no impact from noise, vibration, turbidity and disturbance to marine life from drilling.

There are five producing oil wells - Pateke 3H, Pateke 4H, Amokura 2H, Tui 2H and Tui 3H in the Tui Field - up to 125m deep and 19.3km off the coastline.

Each well is connected to the Umuroa, a 240m long converted oil tanker, to an offshore floating production storage and offloading facility, commonly known as the FPSO, which processed up to 120,000 barrels a day of oil ands water, 50km off the coast.

The Tui Field currently produced 2200 barrels a day of oil after initial production reached 50,000 barrels a day in 2007.

Oil and gas production in the field had declined over the past decade and gas injection was now needed to enable the wells to flow.

Tamarind took over the permit to become the sole owner when it bought shares in four companies - AWE New Zealand, AWE Taranaki, WM Petroleum and Stewart Petroleum - in 2017.

WM Petroleum and Stewart Petroleum have remained partners in Tamarind Resources.

Over the past 12 years about $400m had been invested in exploration and development of the Tui Field, with royalties returning $573m in 2016, and taxes from profits from companies involved reaching $285m.

The oil and gas industry in Taranaki pumped $2.79b in GDP to the national economy, with exploration and development activities contributing $1.74b, and creating 8400 jobs.