Kupe South much bigger than Petrocorp field?

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 2

Kupe South much bigger than Petrocorp field?

PA New- Plymouth The Kupe South field, south of Hawera, could be at least 10 times as big as Petrocorp's onshore McKee field.

The partners in the venture are pleased with the results of flow testing aboard the J.F.P.-Eleven jack-up rig. Indications are that the crude oil and condensate legs of the field could yield about 80,000 barrels of liquids a day for a decade or more. The McKee and associated fields in North Taranaki at present yield about 9000 barrels of oil a day for Petrocorp. Most of this is processed at the Marsden Point refinery although some is exported across the Tasman to Australia.

Testing of the Kupe South-3B well began only 10 days ago and was ex-

pected to continue, for about two or three weeks. But the three drill stem tests have given such good stabilised flows that testing finished yesterday.

The last test confirmed initial thoughts that Kupe South is much bigger than any other recent hydrocarbon finds and second only in size to the giant Maui gas field, also south of Taranaki.

The third test gave sustained flows of 3525 barrels of condensate and 23.69 million cubic feet of gas a day. This was over a total interval of 65m from 3220 m to 3285 m. The first test over the interval 3352 m to 3363.5 m was in the oil leg of the hydrocarbon column, which is more than 140 m deep, and yielded 4580 barrels of crude and 9.8 million cubic feet of gas a day.

The second test yielded about 2370 barrels of condensate and about 20 million cubic feet of gas a day.

These combined results indicate that possibly 10 wells tapping the oil leg and another 10 tapping into the gas-condensate zone would be feasible. As New Zealand already has more than enough gas to meet predicted future demand beyond the turn of the century the Kupe South gas could well be reinjected to keep reservoir pressure high and boost the total recoverable reserves. These results have been described by industry sources as “just beautiful” and “incredibly good”. It is believed the partners will now release the rig, which should return to Port Taranaki during the week-end.

It is believed another two appraisal wells, drilled by the J.F.P.Eleven, may be drilled later this year in different parts of the field.

The other wells would then become production wells when the field is developed, probably within the next two years. A final development plan has not yet been decided on but visits from Canada and the United States to New Zealand are expected to continue as the major partners — T.C.P.L. Resources, Ltd, from Canada (40 per cent), the New Zealand Oil and Gas group (34 per cent), J.F.P. energy from the United States (10 per cent) and the Minister of Energy (11 per cent) de'cide how best to exploit what may be New Zealand’s most valuable hydrocarbon find yet.