Pohokura

The Pohokura offshore gas and condensate field is located in the Taranaki Basin north east of New Plymouth in 35 metres of water off New Zealand's South Island. It is jointly owned by Todd Pohokura (26 percent), Shell Petroleum Mining (18 percent), Shell Exploration NZ (30 percent) and OMV (26 percent). The enterprise is operated by Shell Todd Oil Services.

Pohokura Development Completed by 2008
The Pohokura gas and condensate field, where development was completed in 2008, is located 3,600 metres below the sea bed extending north west from the Taranaki coast. It covers an area that is 16 kilometres long and five kilometres wide. The field was discovered by Fletcher Challenge Energy in 2000. The first well drilled, Pohokura-1, penetrated a gas column measuring 130 metres and had a flow of 17.6 million standard cubic feet of gas a day. The Pohokura-2 well that was drilled five kilometres from Pohokura-1 near the centre of the field penetrated a 115 metre gas column with a flow of 35.5 million standard cubic feet of gas a day during drill stem testing.

Pohokura Acquired by Shell From Fletcher Challenge Energy in 2001
Shell acquired Fletcher Challenge Energy's assets in 2001 and subsequently drilled three onshore wells located at Montunui and five more from an offshore platform. The total Pohokura field has an estimated reserve of 884PJ (petajoule) of natural gas and 44 mmbbls (million barrels of liquids) of condensate. An amount that makes it one of New Zealand's largest condensate fields that would allow it to supply up to 40 percent of the country's natural gas requirements.

First Pohokura gas fed Into Network in 2006
The production station servicing the five Pohokura wells is located on the Motunui coast and the first gas was fed into the network servicing the North Island in September, 2006. Both the onshore production station and the offshore platform are controlled remotely from the offices of Shell at New Plymouth.

The Pohokura gas and condensate field infrastructure includes the wellhead platform and an onshore gas plant that are connected via a sub- sea pipeline. The first commercial gas was produced in September 2006 from three onshore wells. Gas and condensate began flowing from the first of the then five offshore wells in March 2007. In 2009 the field produced 4.3 mmbbl of condensate and oil and 58.5bcf of gas. The natural gas leaving the Pohokura production station feeds into the North Island gas network. The condensate is separated at the production station and piped to storage tanks at Omata, near New Plymouth, from where it is transported by oil tankers to either the Marsden Point refinery, or other refineries offshore.

Technip Australia Awarded Pohokura's Major Development Contract
The contract to install the Pohokura wellhead platform as well as the supply and installation of all umbilicals and flexible lines linking the wells with the platform was carried out by Perth based, Technip Australia. The flexible lines and umbilicals were manufactured at the company's plants at Newcastle in Britain and Le Trait in France. Technip also managed various subcontracts during the development stage of the project. The group's dynamically positioned vessel, the 'Venturer' was used for offshore construction work.
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