Some of the pain of the NZ’s economic downturn is being eased by expanding production in the petroleum sector. The $500m Maari oil project offshore in Taranaki is due to come on stream in the next few weeks, and the $1.1bn Kupe gas/condensate development is due to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2009. The Tui oil field is continuing to surpass expectations, producing around 25,000 barrels a day, down from its peak flow but well above the forecast level for this point of the production cycle of around 10,000 to 12,000 barrels a day. Maari is expected to produce 35,000 barrels a day. Kupe, which has reserves of 254 PJ of gas (all of which is contracted to Genesis Energy) also holds around 14.7m barrels of light oil and 1.1m tonnes of LPG. The Tui partners are planning to bring a drilling rig to NZ for a campaign to explore prospects near Tui which could together contain 50m barrels.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee is bullish about exploration prospects, and has seen no indication of any cutbacks in the NZ oil search as a result of the global slump. The companies which took up permits in the Great South Basin are pushing ahead with interpretative work on seismic data. Brownlee in one of his first moves in this sector decided the programme for the acquisition of seismic data should be expanded, and re-allocated $3.7m from the departmental vote for two more seismic surveys over the summer. He will be making a budget bid for continued funding to pursue similar seismic acquisition by the Govt in order to delineate other prospective exploration targets.

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