In a statement NGC said, “The Kahili well was opened on Saturday to allow the well stream to flow through a new 4 km pipeline to the separation plant, which separates raw natural gas, condensate and water. The raw gas then flowed through a new 8 km pipeline into an existing NGC pipeline for delivery to the Kapuni plant.”

“Further processing at Kapuni, including LPG extraction, treats the gas to the specification required for retail gas market consumers,” it added.

According to NGC CEO Phil James, “Final commissioning activities include the fine-tuning of plant and equipment, and operational processes. The flow of Kahili gas to the Kapuni treatment plant is a significant milestone in NGC’s gas gathering initiative, designed to facilitate the development of previously uneconomic gas reserves and to increase the utilisation of NGC’s strategic assets.”

“The commissioning also marks a change in role for an existing NGC pipeline that had been used since 1986 to transport carbon dioxide-rich Kapuni gas north from NGC’s Kapuni plant to Waitara for methanol production. With those supply contracts now completed, this pipeline had been reclassified as a gas gathering pipeline and had been reversed-flowed to receive Kahili gas and deliver it to the Kapuni gas treatment plant,” added James.

The Kahili plant, which is remote-controlled from NGC’s Kapuni plant, is located 15 km east of Inglewood and comprises a separator, stabiliser, chilling equipment and condensate and water storage tanks. The plant and the 12 km of pipelines were completed in July.

The Kahili field is operated by Austral-Pacific Energy.