Gas field upgrade almost done

Mike Watson

Natural gas production from an offshore well in North Taranaki looked set to resume in late April following a three-month maintenance programme.

The well helped produce 40 per cent of natural gas used for New Zealand’s energy generation from the large 80 square kilometre Pohokura gas field.

The maintenance campaign on the well was halfway through being completed since starting in February. Gas field partner OMV Taranaki was completing the project while minimising any impact on the environment and community, an OMV spokeswoman said.

All debris and wastewater from the project was being transported to shore, and treated and disposed of at a certified facility, she said.

‘‘With project progressing we will progressively put the wells back in production and we will have to flare during the cleaning period.

‘‘We aim to minimise flaring to the absolute minimum but there will be three flaring events of approximately two days each duration during the campaign beginning from mid – March.’’

The flaring to burn off residual gas during the restart would be the first since the field was developed in 2006, she said.

Environmental measures also included a special well clean up facility installed on the rig deck to separate liquids from the gas.

Offshore production will continue for the other offshore Pohokura wells during flaring using specialised equipment to meet the highest safety and environmental standards.

All stakeholders would be notified before each of the flaring events and there was a 500m exclusion zone around the Pohokura production platform to ensure safety at all times.

Offshore production from the well would be shut – for 18 days in March and April.

The well had already been shut for 12 days when a jack-up rig was positioned next to the facility last month.

Most of the shut-in period for the remainder of the campaign is related to the decoupling of the rig and platform at the end of April.

The Pohokura gas field is the country’s largest natural gas resource and produced about 40 per cent of the gas required for New Zealand’s energy generation.

The field, which was operated remotely from New Plymouth, consisted of five offshore wells and three onshore wells linked to the onshore Pohokura Production Station.