Penrod rig crawls past Taranaki

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 8

Penrod rig crawls past Taranaki

PA New Plymouth The Penrod 78 drilling rig crawled past the coast of Taranaki yesterday on its way to the Great South Basin and the search for oil.

The giant semi-submers-ible drilling rig, one of the biggest in the world, was showing no signs of its battles with five typhoons during its seven week tow from Japan. The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, flew out to it, about 240 km off-shore, yesterday, studying equipment and talking to crew.

Mr Birch was fascinated by the size of the rig and what he called the “indescribable” technical equipment on board. Penrod 78 is scheduled to drill two wells into the Great South Basin to the south of Invercargill for Hunt Petroleum, Southern Petroleum, and Petrocorp. Crewmen told Mr Birch

of the 9m to 15m seas and 130km/h winds the rig encountered as it passed through one typhoon and changed course to avoid others that blew up in its path. The weather had delayed the rig’s arrival by more than two weeks.

However, while crewmen said that the seas at times were very rough, they said that the rig handled the conditions well and suffered no damage. Penrod 78, under tow, had reached a speed of 11 knots at times, but in harsher conditions had been forced down to 2.5 knots.

Penrod spokesmen said the rig should reach Invercargill in about five days. Today, crews will be changed and about 75 new crewmen will go on board to replace the transit crew of 19.

Mr Birch said later that the arrival of Penrod 78.

preceding by only a few weeks the arrival of a second semi-submersible, Benreoch, which will drill off the Taranaki coast, meant New Zealand was entering an unprecedented and exciting phase in its search for new hydrocarbon resources.

Penrod 78 is specially designed for deep water drilling and to cope with the waves of up to 30m and winds up to 110 knots. It can continue drilling in 15m waves and 70 knot winds.

Penrod 78 weighs more than 26,000 tonnes or 37,000 tonnes when ballasted on drill site.

It will drill its first well, Rakiura, about 225 km south of Invercargill. After that, it will move about 240 km south-east of Invercargill to drill the Pukaki structure.