OMV Furthers Success in Offshore Taranki

Issued on behalf of OMV NZ

* Field on target for production after successful appraisal well
* Longest well ever drilled in New Zealand
* OMV strengthens its offshore position

The Manaia Field, south west of the Maari Field in offshore Taranaki, will proceed to commercial oil production after the success of an appraisal well, field operator OMV New Zealand Ltd announced today.

The decision comes after the Manaia-1 appraisal well – the longest well ever drilled in New Zealand - was completed following a 48 day drilling programme. “The well results give us cause for optimism so we are pressing ahead with preparations to begin production as soon as possible,” Wayne Kirk, Managing Director of OMV New Zealand said today.

“This is a very pleasing result given the challenging nature of the drilling we have had to undertake for Manaia-1.”

The Manaia Field is located 10km south west of the oil field Maari in petroleum exploration permit PEP 38413 (see attached map). The appraisal well targeted the Mangahewa formation (see attached diagram).

“We knew there was a good chance of success as oil was first discovered there in 1970. At the time it was considered uneconomic because of poor reservoir quality and low oil production rates from a typical vertical well. However, the type of well drilled now, our evaluation of the well data combined with the availability of the Maari production facilities now makes the Manaia discovery commercially viable.”

The Maari production facilities consist of a wellhead platform, Tiro Tiro Moana, which transfers the oil via subsea flow lines to the floating production storage and an off-take vessel, the Raroa, anchored 1.5km away.

The Manaia-1 appraisal well was drilled as an ‘extended reach well’from the Maari wellhead platform using the ENSCO 107 jack-up rig. The rig has been on location since November last year drilling five production and three water injection wells into the Maari Field which is located 80km off the south coast of Taranaki.

“A well of this length – about eight kilometres or eight times the length of the Auckland Harbour Bridge – had never been attempted before in New Zealand,” said Mr Kirk. “The well path from the drilling rig to the Manaia Field also added to the considerable challenge. It’s the equivalent of drilling down from Wellington Airport and aiming for an area the size of a set of goal posts some 2km below the Westpac Stadium.”

The well will now be tied into the Maari facilities with production due to begin over the next months.

Maari
OMV New Zealand also announced that the ENSCO rig has completed drilling another production well at Maari targeting the M2A formation which lies just above the oil producing Moki formation.

“Previous exploration had identified M2A as a promising oil accumulation although considerably smaller than Moki so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity while we still had the ENSCO rig in place,” said Mr Kirk.
Production from M2A is expected to begin by year end.

OMV New Zealand said it would not comment on reserves or production flow rates until a full evaluation of both discoveries had been completed. However, it said the initial results pointed to these being along the lines of previous expectations.

“Today’s announcements are icing on the Maari cake,” said Mr Kirk.

“The extra production from the two fields will add to the sizeable benefits the development is already providing the New Zealand economy.”

Background information:

OMV in New Zealand
OMV has been active in Australia/ New Zealand, one of OMV’s six E&P core regions, since 1999. OMV has offices both in Perth, Australia, and in Wellington, New Zealand. OMV's New Zealand activities are run by 56 employees in Wellington and the Maari project team in New Plymouth. In New Zealand, OMV now currently has interests in 10 exploration permits and in 3 petroleum mining permits.

Maari Partners
OMV New Zealand Limited (operator) - 69%
Todd Energy - 16%
Horizon Oil International Ltd - 10%
Cue Taranaki Pty Ltd - 5%

For further information please visit:

http://http://www.brg.co.nz

ENDS

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