Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. says that the tie in of the B1, B2 and B3 wells into the Cheal Production Station has been completed on budget and ahead of schedule. The wells, pipeline and production facility are now mechanically complete; all regulatory approvals have been achieved and the facility has been handed over for commissioning ready to produce oil and gas. The project has had an excellent safety record with no lost time incidents or near misses.

The wells were shut-in as part of the planned, phased installation of the permanent connections to the production facility. They will be brought back on-line in a managed manner and are planned to increase total Cheal oil production to approximately 700 barrels of oil per day by end 2007.

Commenting on this achievement, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and President Thompson Jewell said, "We are extremely pleased to be able to deliver this project ahead of schedule and be able to preserve our excellent safety record. This project again reflects on the planning, management and delivery skills of the team involved, both at Austral and our project contractors. We will now focus on bringing all of the wells up to their planned production rates, and executing the next phase of the field development plan."

Cheal is a producing oil and gas field south of Stratford in onshore Taranaki, New Zealand. It is 69.5% owned by Austral, which is also field operator. The field comprises four active wells and contains 2.6 MMbbl of independently certified oil reserves (2P) and around 1.8 bcf of associated gas. Austral has put in place all relevant oil, gas and LPG sales contracts for the Cheal output.

Tags: Austral Pacific Energy Ltd.