The Tui oil field is an oil reservoir located off the west coast of

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dis ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. Tui is the sixth largest crude oil field in New Zealand with total reserves of . Remaining reserves as at January 2018 was . Oil is produced from the Tui, Amokura and Pateke wellheads on the seabed in approximately 120m of water. These wells are connected to the Umuroa, a floating production storage and offloading vessel. The reservoir was discovered in 2003 by a joint venture between Australian Worldwide Exploration and New Zealand Overseas Petroleum. The nearby Amokura and Pateke oil reserves were discovered in 2004. In 2016, Tamarind purchased AWE's 57.5% interests in the field. In early 2019, permits were granted for drilling of side track wells to extend the production life of the field. The drilling program was suspended in September 2019 after the first well was dry. Following the suspension of the drilling program, Tamarind warned staff on the Umuroa that its contract would not be renewed after December 31. On 11 November 2019 field operator Tamarind Taranaki announced that it "may be insolvent" and put the company into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

. On 27 November Tamarind was served with an abatement notice by the Environmental Protection Authority following a small oil spill at the Tui site. In 2020 the High Court ordered the Umuroa

FPSO A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...

to stay connected to the oilfield and was cited by

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

as a reason to urgently update the regulatory regime for oil and gas.

References

Zealandia Geography of Taranaki Geography of the New Zealand seabed Oil fields of New Zealand {{Taranaki-geo-stub

See also

References