Project manager Milan Hendrikse said the first of six planned offshore wells had recently been completed and successfully hooked in to the offshore platform production facilities.
Gas and condensate began flowing to the onshore processing production station at Motunui near New Plymouth on Tuesday.
“Everything went according to expectation and flow rates are slightly better than expected,” said Hendrikse, but he declined to specify these flow rates.
In about a year, the other five offshore wells are expected to have been drilled and completed, and the onshore production station should be operating at its full capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day of gas, together with the associated condensate, according to Hendrikse.
Five more offshore wells are expected to be drilled over the coming year. Three onshore wells were commissioned in September last year, first delivering commercial gas to market at that time.
He would not specify likely condensate production, but former field operator Fletcher Challenge Energy has said the Pohokura gas-to-condensate ratio is very rich. The field has an estimated 750bcf of gas and could produce 50 million barrels or more of condensate, according to Fletcher Challenge.
The Pohokura project was a showcase development for Shell EP International, according to Hendrikse who said there had been no surprises with all the drilling so far.
“Everything - reservoir pressure, flow rates, anticipated declines in reservoir pressure, et cetera - has been as expected," he said.
“We are very confident that we will achieve the value from this project that we expect.”
Early this month, Shell EP International Asia Pacific technical vice president Gaurdie Banister said the partners should know the scope for further gas sales from the field by the end of this year.
Pohokura gas is fed into the North Island gas network and the condensate piped to storage tanks at Omata near New Plymouth for shipping to refineries.
Operator Shell Exploration NZ (48%), Todd Energy (26%) and OMV (26%) jointly own the field.
