Shell Puts Ruru Drilling on Hold

Shell New Zealand is putting its latest Maui oil and gas field exploration drilling on hold until summer, after multiple disruptions caused by inclement winter weather, country chairman Rob Jaeger has told the ENEX oil industry conference in New Plymouth.

He also revealed Shell is optimistic it can continue to wring many more years of production out of the Kapuni field, which Shell first developed in 1955.

"We are currently planning to embark on a pilot project to evaluate whether we might economically recover what we call more difficult or tight gas from the Kapuni reservoirs," Jaeger said.

"If, and in our business that is always a big if, this is successful, then we see a bright and possibly long future remaining for this field."

The New Zealand Energy Data File says Kapuni's total recoverable gas resources, at a 90% probability (P90), amount over the field's life to 975 PetaJoules of energy, with some 64PJs still to be extracted.  However, remaining Kapuni gas reserves at a 50% probability of recovery (P50) are recorded at 105PJs.

By comparison, the world-scale Maui field's total P90 gas reserves at 3,914PJs, with some 264PJs of P50 reserves estimated still to remain.

Shell is operating the only exploration drilling rig currently active in New Zealand in a search for extensions to the Maui field, which began producing in 1975 and at one time produced 90% of New Zealand's gas requirements, down to 20% today.

The Ruru prospect, on the southern edge of the offshore Taranaki field, had yet to produce results, but a successful find could see production handled through Shell's existing onshore production facilities, said Jaeger.

Source: TVNZ