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New Zealand Oil & Gas says the first oil has begun to flow from its Tui field off the Taranaki coast. Tui is 50km offshore in the Taranaki Basin and has an estimated 27.9 million barrels of oil. It was discovered three years ago.
The intention is to ramp up production to 50,000 barrels of oil a day.
NZOG owns a 12.5 per cent share of the development, giving the company 3.5 million barrels of oil over the project life, 30 per cent of which will be recovered in the next 12 months.
The first three shipments of oil have already been sold, benchmarked against the Tapis crude oil price.
"The oil revenues will give us a solid platform to pursue our growth strategy," chief executive David Salisbury said.
The company has three projects on the go - Tui and Kupe in Taranaki and the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast.
- NZPA
