“There were some sober faces when Tui-2H died on us, but with some rocking it came back in gangbusters,” Washer told the 2007 New Zealand Oil and Gas Conference in New Plymouth on Wednesday.
Since that first oil on July 31, two more development wells from the Tui, Amokura and Pateke oil pools had been successfully brought onstream and “on several occasions we have reached the limit”, he said, referring to the 50,000 barrels per day maximum processing ability of the Umuroa FPSO.
“These wells have now really demonstrated their ability to deliver,” said Washer, adding that the fields had produced about 1.63 million barrels of waxy crude in the first 44 days of production.
Only three wells, with a combined production capacity well in excess of 100,000bpd, were presently needed and they were being choked back to 50,000bpd limit. The fourth well would be brought onstream later to maintain production flows.
Washer said initially there had been negligible water cut, now there was about 15,000barrels of water per day, and the company expected more water “any day now”.
Washer said AWE’s projections for the Tui Area fields was for output to have declined to about 17,800bpd after a full year of production, while water cut might have increased to 102,000 barrels of water per day.
Over 50% of the estimated 2P (proved plus probable) 32 million barrels of oil would be recovered with water cut of over 90%.
“This will essentially be an oil-skimming factory,” he said.
The economic limit for the project, with oil priced at only $US50 per barrel, was about 2400bpd, so there should be many years of commercial production ahead.
Washer said Schlumberger’s downhole tool, commonly known as “the periscope”, had allowed the horizontal sections of the wells – a total of 5800m – always to be drilled within the top 2m of the reservoirs to maximise oil recovery.
A fourth shipment, of about 600,000 barrels, had recently been exported, he added.
The Tui partners are operator AWE (42.5%), Mitsui E&P NZ (35%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (12.5%) and Pan Pacific Petroleum (10%).
