The Tui area oil field in New Zealand’s offshore Taranaki basin reached another significant milestone, with the production of the 20 millionth barrel of Tui oil.

The achievement comes less than eighteen months after production began on 30 July 2007.

The Tui area oil field includes three producing reservoirs, Tui, Amokura and Pateke and lies 50km off the Taranaki coast.

The Tui area oil field is operated by a joint venture comprising Pan Pacific Petroleum NL (10%), Australian Worldwide Exploration Limited (42.5% and Field Operator), Mitsui Ltd (35%), and New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited (12.5%).

When the investment decision was taken by the joint venture, the proven and probable (2P) reserves were estimated to be 26.8 million barrels (MMbbls).

With the outstanding performance of the fields and the assessment of new information from the production process, this initial reserve figure has been upgraded several times and is currently 50.1 mmbbls.

With 20 MMbbls produced to date, remaining 2P reserves are approximately 30 MMbbls – meaning that the estimated amount of recoverable oil remaining is still higher than the original total 2P reserve figure.

Tags: Pan Pacific Petroleum