Oil drillship arrives off Taranaki work site

Press, 27 December 1980, Page 2

Oil drillship arrives off Taranaki work site

FA Wellington * The oil drillship Sedco-445 arrived from Singapore late yesterday off her first drilling site. 100 km north of jjew Plymouth. - There will be no port call fOr the Panamanian-regis-tered ship. From her arrival in New Zealand waters on Ifer year-long contract, her supply vessels and helicopter will be hard at work getting her ready to spud in the first exploration well, possibly as early as tomor-i rjw. -Customs and other official clearances have been arranged for today and the ship will then offload equipment she has brought from Singapore and take on other items such as pipes and casiifes. -The maritime crew which has brought the vessel south y3ll be taken off and flown to their scattered homes throughout the world, and a new exploration crew, which includes many New Zealandejs. will go aboard. onshore radio beacons will be set up on three high promontories to give the ship a fix so that she can be sure of being in the right place, north_ of New Plymouth and 75km west of Kawhia.

morning the helicopter will land at Kawhia to pick up five or six representatives of two local Maori tribes who will be whisked out for a ceremony of- blessing aboard the ship. Spudding-in would be very soon after the three-quarter hour ceremony, said the general manager of Shell-BP-Todd Oil Services, Ltd, Mr Graeme Brown, yesterday.

The ceremony was only the second aboard a drill ship, said Mr Brown, who was operations manager on the Kupe exploration when the first ceremony took place. The well will be named Tangaroa 1 after the god of the sea. The ship will not need to i anchor in the 145 m waterdepth site. She has facilities to drop an anchor, but she will be “dynamically positioned’’ by computer-oper-ated propellers around her [hull. , . '; ' “We have drilled in that area before and we have had the odd lead. The only confirmed field we have ever had was Maui, but we believe this area offers promise. From experience, I would say we will find gas condensate, but we are always hoping to find oil,” Mr Brown said. .

The expected total depth of Tangaroa 1 will be 4500 m. Two more wells will be drilled off Taranaki by Sedco-445, and together with the seismic survey already done the whole venture will cost S4O million. Sedco-445, on charter from a Panamanian company, has drilled off Brunei, West Africa, and Australia in water depths up to 2000 m. Oil at that depth cannot yet be commercially exploited, but any find at Tangaroa I’s 145 m water depth 'would present few problems. Tire Maui platform is now working in a 100 m water depth. Ninety-six people can be accommodated aboard Sedco--445. Officers, engineers, and seasmen as well as most of the drilling crews and many of the supervisors are New Zealanders.