NGC announced it would be buying at least a petajoule over two years from the field, which is southeast of Inglewood.

Since the Maui redetermination report earlier this year, both small explorers and gas traders companies, particularly NGC, have been trying to stitch together small field gas sales contracts, which previously would have been ignored for larger gas contracts.

Just recently NGC concluded a deal with Indo-Pacific Energy for the forward purchase of gas yet to be discovered by Indo-Pacific and its onshore Taranaki partners.

The Surrey field was discovered last year, with production currently from one well. Additional development wells will be drilled over the next 12 months.

The surface production facilities, including a one km gas export pipeline, will interconnect with NGC's gas pipeline system. Gas deliveries are expected to commence next week and will ultimately be processed through NGC's gas treatment plant at Kapuni.