Last week company executive vice-president Bruce Vincent said Swift Energy would probably not drill the Kauri-A4 well until the fourth quarter. However, the company now says it aims to spud the well in early June.
The well will go deeper than the main targets, the upper and lower Tariki sandstones, in the nearby Rimu field and will target the Eocene-aged Kapuni group sands. The Kapuni sands are the main producing formations for the Maui, Kapuni and Pohokura fields and are usually found at depths of about 3000-35000m.
Vincent said Kauri-A4 would also target the shallow Kauri sands, which produced some hydrocarbon shows during earlier exploratory drilling of the Kauri prospect last year.
Although Vincent made no mention of the characteristics of Kauri oil, it is known the API, pour point and other qualities of Kauri crude are fascinating Swift Energy and its partners, with road tankers having taken several loads of thick, waxy Kauri crude north to the Omata tank farm storage facilities near New Plymouth for analysis.
Drilling of Kauri-A4 is expected to take up to 90 days, and the Parker Drilling 246 rig will then move northwest to Rimu where it will drill an additional development well targeting the upper Tariki sandstones.
The Swift Energy also reported that initial natural gas sales were expected to begin next week from the Rimu production station, with the commissioning of the $US25 million facilities almost completed.
Initial production earlier this month was from just one well, Rimu-A1, of 500-700 barrels of oil and 1.5-2.0 million cubic feet of gas per day. Current production was averaging approximately 900-1000 barrels of oil and 2.0-3.0 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Initial sales of natural gas liquids, which were being processed at the Rimu station, were expected to start from next month.
"We are very pleased with the successful processing of natural gas liquids at our Rimu production station, which paves the way forward for increased oil and gas production volumes from New Zealand," said company president and chief executive officer Terry Swift from Houston.
"Additionally, the Kauri deep exploration well will test for the
presence of reservoir quality Kauri, Tariki, and Kapuni sands on a significant structural high. The Kauri exploratory test is a world class prospect," he added.
Swift's total New Zealand oil and gas production for the second quarter of 2002 was expected to be between 3.2-4.0 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent.
