KEY POINTS:
The first oil from the offshore Taranaki Tui oil field, about 300,000 barrels, has been loaded for shipment to Caltex refineries in Sydney and Brisbane.
The oil properties and quality were in line with pre-production expectations, preliminary testing from the production wells showed.
The oil is being loaded on to the floating production, storage and offtake vessel at a rate of 42,000 barrels a day, but system uptime was improving quickly as experience in operating the new facility was gained, the field's partners said.
- NZPA
