Advanced pipe-laying vessel in NZ for Kupe project

By NZPA

Thursday 10th January 2008

One of the most advanced pipe-laying vessels operating in the offshore oil and gas industry has arrived in Wellington from Scotland for the next phase of the Kupe project.

It was the first time a vessel such as the Apache had been used in this country, Kupe partner New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG) said today.

The Apache would be used to lay gas pipeline between the offshore Kupe wellhead platform and the onshore production station near Hawera in South Taranaki.

Usually, pipes were welded together onboard a ship or barge and then laid off the back of the vessel, in a time-consuming process prone to delays due to inclement offshore weather, NZOG said.

The Apache allowed a pipeline which had already been welded together onshore, to be reeled off the back of the ship easily and quickly with much less risk of weather downtime.

The vessel was scheduled to leave Wellington on Sunday to pick up the welded pipeline, which would be laid in three 10km sections, from the spoolbase at Picton.

Once necessary initiation procedures were carried out, the Apache could lay the pipeline on the seabed at up to 1km an hour, NZOG said.

The Apache was due to finish pipelaying by mid-February and would then return to the North Sea.

The Kupe project is expected to be completed by mid-2009 and produce about 254 petajoules of natural gas, 1.1 million tonnes of LPG and 14.7 million barrels of light oil (condensate).

NZOG has a 15% interest, while Origin Energy has 50%, Genesis Energy 31% and Mitsui E&P Australia 4%.

NZOG shares were down 1c around lunchtime today to $1.13, from a high during the past year of $1.34 last July and up on the 86c low last March.

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