Offshore Marine Services New Zealand, which has the manning contract for the Raroa, has already appointed six of the 50 people needed to run the FPSO.

“Preparations for the manning of the Raroa are well underway and we have already engaged six men, two offshore installation managers, two production supervisors, and two maintenance supervisors,” OMS New Zealand director John Spurway told PetroleumNews.net.

He said the staff should be heading to Singapore later this month to help commission the vessel before its due sail-away, prior to year-end.

“We are to appoint other staff next month, some of whom will also go to Singapore for the Raroa’s maiden voyage here,” added Spurway.

SembCorp Marine is converting the Andaman Sea oil tanker to the FPSO, while fellow Singapore-headquartered Tanker Pacific Management will operate the Raroa for the Maari partners for up to 15 years.

The Raroa and Maari wellhead platform is scheduled to be installed by next March, while the jack-up Ensco Rig 107, due in New Zealand waters next month, will not start Maari development drilling until after it has completed the three Kupe gas field development wells, plus at least the nearby Momoho-1 exploration well, for the Origin Energy-led Kupe venture.

Total 2P Maari reserves are estimated to exceed 50 million barrels (MMbbl) of crude, with another 10-20MMbbl of upside potential.

The Maari partners are operator OMV NZ (69%), Horizon Oil (10%), Todd Energy (16%) and Cue Energy Resources (5%).