New Zealand Oil & Gas has announced that its Tui area oil fields in New Zealand's offshore Taranaki basin have produced the 20 millionth barrel of oil. The Tui area oil fields include three producing reservoirs, Tui, Amokura and Pateke and lie 50km off the Taranaki coast.
New Zealand Oil and Gas (NZOG), with a 12.5% stake, is the New Zealand-based partner in the joint venture which has developed the oil fields. The other partners are AWE (42.5% and field operator), Mitsui (35%), and Pan Pacific Petroleum (10%). Before production began, the proven and probable (2P) reserves were estimated to be 27.9 million barrels (mmbbls).
With the performance of the fields and the assessment of new information from the production process, this initial reserves figure has been upgraded several times and is currently 50.1mmbbls.
According to the company, with 20mmbbls now produced, remaining 2P reserves are approximately 30mmbbls, meaning that the estimated amount of recoverable oil remaining is higher than the original total reserves. The oil is produced from four wells, through a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, the Umuroa.
New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited (NZOG) is an independent, Wellington-based exploration and production company. The company claims to have around 14,000 shareholders, with a mix of retail and institutional investors.