Kupe Gas Project - First major offshore milestone reached

Today’s arrival of the wellhead platform jacket for the Kupe Gas Project into Port Taranaki marks the achievement of another major milestone – with the offshore operations due to begin shortly.


Members of the Kupe Gas Project team were on location at the port to welcome to Taranaki the barge that has transported the jacket down from Thailand.


Kupe Gas Project Director Peter Ashford said “the arrival of the wellhead platform jacket is the culmination of five months of hard work and is a major achievement for the Kupe Gas Project.”


The jacket is one of the largest structural components for the Project’s offshore platform which will be situated 30 kilometres offshore, from Hawera. The jacket is piled into the seabed and then the topsides of the platform (including a main production deck and helideck), sit on top.


It was constructed by Thai Nippon Steel in Thailand.


Weighing approximately 550 tonnes, the jacket is 53 metres high and is 11 metres wide.


Mr Ashford said the safe arrival of the jacket into Taranaki, on time and without injury, reflects the efforts of more than 500 people who have been involved in its construction and delivery.


“Today’s milestone shows that the Kupe Gas Project is now in an exciting and important phase with the start of the offshore campaign.”


The jacket will remain on the barge at Port Taranaki until the offshore rig, the Ensco 107, arrives in Taranaki. The rig will then be used to install the jacket.


“The Kupe Gas Project team is grateful to the local Taranaki community for their ongoing support for the Project and I look forward to bringing them further updates in the coming months,” Mr Ashford said.


The Kupe Gas Project is expected to be completed by mid-2009 and will provide New Zealand with approximately 254 petajoules of natural gas, 1.1 million tonnes of LPG and 14.7 million barrels of light oil (condensate).


Participants are:

Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Limited* 50% (Operator)

Genesis Energy 31%

New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited 15%

Mitsui E&P (New Zealand) Limited 4%

*a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy Limited