“We have contracted the Ensco 107 to drill up to six wells and we will be drilling three production wells on Kupe,” Origin Energy’s Kupe project director Peter Ashford told PetroleumNews.net.
"We will keep one option in reserve in case we have a problem with one of the production wells.
“If we do not use this on Kupe, we are looking at other options, albeit the lead time to implement this will be short and hence challenging since we will not be able to make a call on this until the main Kupe drilling is completed.
“We are still looking at options for the other two wells – and this includes using them for an exploration well or wells in the wider Kupe permit."
Another option would be to assign the jack-up rig to another operator to drill in other permits, he said.
Operator Origin Energy and its Kupe partners are spending $NZ980 million (about $A840 million) developing the gas-condensate field about 30km off south Taranaki.
Late last month, Origin said the arrival in Taranaki waters of the near-new 107 rig, presently working in Vietnamese waters, had been pushed back from March next year to June 2007. But Ashford said the delay would not affect the project’s critical path and that first gas remained scheduled for the first half of the 2009 calendar year.
Recoverable Kupe reserves from the central field area (CFA) are 253.5 petajoules of gas, 14.7 million barrels (MMbbl) of condensate, and 1.06 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas.
There is also significant upside potential – of up to 200PJ of gas and 1.7MMbbl of condensate – from northwest of the CFA and other nearby prospects.
The Kupe partners were still evaluating the full potential of Kupe mining lease, PMP 38146, including the nearby Stent, Denby and Leith prospects, Ashford said.
Kupe partner New Zealand Oil & Gas has said some of the Kupe reserves upside would be determined by drilling the initial production wells.
NZOG also said the offshore production facilities were being built with very substantial excess capacity so increased volumes of product could be handled easily through the platform, which will have slots for up to six wells.
The Kupe partners are operator Origin with a 50% stake, Genesis Energy (31%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (15%), and Mitsui E&P NZ (4%).
