The 27,795-tonne tanker Kakariki is due to load about 6000t of Pohokura condensate – together with some Maui and Kapuni condensate, and McKee blend crude oil – before its scheduled departure for the country’s sole refinery at Marsden Point, Northland, on Thursday.

Pohokura operating committee chairman Ajit Bansal yesterday welcomed the commercial quantities of gas and condensate flowing from the three completed deviated onshore-offshore wells through the onshore Motunui production station.

“This is a significant milestone for the Pohokura joint venture parties, and for their gas and condensate customers,” he said.

Shell Exploration New Zealand operates the Pohokura field, with its estimated recoverable gas reserves in excess of 700 petajoules. Pohokura gas customers include Contact Energy, Genesis Energy and Vector subsidiary NGC.

Bansal said commissioning of the onshore production station would continue over the coming weeks while the jack-up Ensco Rig 56 completed the installation of the offshore platform.

Drilling of the six scheduled offshore wells would start once the rig had finished the installation of the 415t steel jacket, the 165t topsides module, riser and conductors.

These offshore wells were expected to come onstream during the next 12 months, he added.

Bansal said Pohokura gas was being fed into the North Island high-pressure gas network, starting with injection into the nearby Maui Oaonui-Huntly pipeline, and that condensate was being piped to storage tanks at Omata near New Plymouth for shipping to refineries.

Although SENZ has not recently released official expected flow rates, it has told the Commerce Commission it anticipates full production from the field to be about 60-80PJ per year.

The Pohokura partners are operator SENZ (48%), Todd Energy (26%) and Austrian firm OMV (26%).