Giant rig arrives in Taranaki
A giant jack-up rig has arrived off the Taranaki coast to improve the country’s natural gas supply from the Pohokura offshore well.
Austrian-based OMV will use the COSL-operated BOSS rig, which will be attached to the Pohokura platform, for a threemonth offshore well intervention and maintenance campaign starting this week.
The rig arrived off the Taranaki coast from the Marlborough Sounds yesterday and will be attached to the platform from today.
The campaign will bring offshore gas supply from Pohokura back to almost 20 per cent of New Zealand’s gas supply.
Well interventions were required to ensure that the wells are producing optimally, an OMV spokeswoman said.
The Pohokura platform (PPB) offshore intervention campaign was focused on existing offshore wells, she said.
‘‘We are planning to open new producing zones and shut off zones that have watered out over time.’’
There work will not impact on onshore production levels.
More than a dozen Taranaki contracting companies are among the total workforce of 270, including 240 offshore and 30 onshore workers.
The rig weighed more than 10,000 tonnes and was approximately 156m high – the same height as Paritutu Rock, overlooking Port Taranaki.
The rig would be ‘jacked up’ alongside the platform and connected to the platform by a bridge.
Contractors will use the deck, which will extend over the platform from the rig, to undertake work on the wells.
The campaign is the first major project to be delivered by OMV since the purchase of Shell’s New Zealand assets at the end of 2018.
OMV Asia Pacific senior vicepresident Gabriel Selischi said Pohokura had been producing gas for New Zealand since 2006.
Combined with production from onshore wells the Pohokura offshore field contributed about 40 per cent of the gas required for energy generation in NZ.
‘‘We want this to continue well into the future,’’ he said.
Selischi said OMV saw excellent potential in Taranaki to provide gas ‘‘responsibly and sustainably’’ for New Zealand for many years to come.
The company planned to invest more than $500 million in the region in coming years to maintain production from the offshore Maui and Pohokura fields, he said.
‘‘Prior to buying the Shell assets we were a joint venture party in the Ma¯ ui and Pohokura assets so we know them well and see considerable potential in them for years to come.’’
OMV would make a final investment decision this year to drill up to five wells from the Maui A platform with additional gas on stream in 2020, he said.