KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Oil & Gas says "batch-drilling" on the Kupe project off the Taranaki coast is making good progress.
Drilling began on December 19 and the "top hole" sections of all three offshore development wells have been drilled by the ENSCO 107 jack-up drilling rig.
The 43cm-wide section of the Kupe South 6 well reached a depth of 975 metres on Saturday. When it reaches the target depth of 2000 metres, it will be cased and cemented, and the rig will move on to drill similar 43cm-wide holes for the KS-7 and KS-8 wells.
Drilling of the three wells 30km off the coast is expected to take around five months to complete.
They will then be tied into an unmanned offshore platform, a 30km pipeline to shore, and an onshore processing station.
The Kupe project is expected to be completed by mid-2009 and will produce approximately 254 petajoules of natural gas, 1.1 million tonnes of LPG and 14.7 million barrels of light oil (condensate).
- NZPA
