Offshore oil jobs at risk

About 58 oil industry staff could be looking for new jobs after a company that operates a floating oil production facility offshore of Taranaki was reportedly told its contract would end in December.

Tamarind Resources has told Norwegian-owned BW Offshore that its contract for the FPSO Umuroa (a floating production storage and offloading facility) will not be renewed after December 31, Offshore Energy Today reported on Monday.

Around 58 workers are employed on the Umuroa, which is one of two FPSOs anchored in the Taranaki Basin. The other facility is the Raroa contracted to OMV to service the Maui and Maari fields. The Raroa is not affected by the termination of the Umuroa contract.

Tamarind Resources and BW Offshore had not responded to requests for comment about the reports before publication of this story.

The Umuroa processed crude oil from four wells in three Tui fields that are owned by Tamarind. From the Umuroa the oil is pumped onto tankers for export to Australia.

Each well is connected to the

240m-long converted oil tanker, which can process up to 120,000 barrels of oil and water a day.

The Tui field production has dropped to 2200 barrels a day of oil after initially producing up to

50,000 barrels a day in 2007. Tamarind had previously extended the contract for the Umuroa by 12 months in July 2018.

The Umuroa has been operating in the Tui field since 2007 and BW Offshore was now planning to demobilise the facility, OET reported.

In September Tamarind halted its drilling programme in the Tui field, which it took over in 2017 from AWE, after there was no oil found in the first well of three wells planned.

It is not known if the semisubmersible CSOL Prospector rig will carry on and drill the remaining two wells before it is contracted to OMV in December.