Offshore staff

PORT MARLBOROUGH, South Island, New Zealand -- Kupe field operator Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Ltd. says a 30-km pipeline will be welded at the small town of Picton for installation on the NZ$980-million Kupe gas project offshore New Zealand.

Origin has signed an agreement with Port Marlborough New Zealand Ltd. to use Picton, northeast of the South Island, as a spoolbase point to weld the pipes into three 10-km sections to be installed by a pipelay vessel owned by Apache Corp. The vessel will arrive onsite in December. Installation is to begin in early 2008, with first gas from the field expected by mid-2009.

The 12-m sections of pipe will be arriving at Picton beginning in June 2007.

McConnell Dowell Constructors Ltd. has been contracted for all civil work, structural components, and fabrication to be undertaken at the spoolbase.

In the meantime, horizontal directional drilling (HDD) has been completed for the pipeline's shore crossing, and the umbilical cable line has been laid through two tunnels. The 30-km pipeline will run through one of the HDD tunnels from the platform to the onshore production station near Hawera in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island.

The Kupe project will provide New Zealand with approximately 254 petajoules of natural gas, 1.1 million metric tons of LPG, and 14.7 million barrels of light oil (condensate), Origin says.

Partners on the project include Genesis Energy with 31% interest, New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. with15% interest, and Mitsui E&P ( New Zealand ) Ltd. with 4% interest.

5/2/2007