KEY POINTS:
The first offshore gas from the Pohokura field has started to flow, significantly increasing production, the field's operators said yesterday.
Gas and condensate oil was flowing from the first of a planned six offshore wells, adding to three onshore production wells.
A spokesman for the joint venture declined to detail, for commercial reasons, how much was being produced from the field, which is expected to produce around 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Pohokura, on the west coast of the North Island, has an estimated 750 petajoules of gas, and is being relied on as one of the main replacements for the diminishing Maui field.
Royal Dutch Shell has a 48 per cent stake in the field, with Austrian oil company OMV and private New Zealand investors Todd Energy each holding 26 per cent.
