tui reserves upgrade being considered

See the comments towards the end of this article. I think that it is inevitable an upgrade of some sort will come about as a result of significantly less water cut than expected.

"Tui ready for 10 millionth barrel of oil

The Tui oilfields off the coast of Taranaki are about to produce their 10 millionth barrel of oil. The milestone was expected to be reached tomorrow or Friday, 12.5 percent stakeholders New Zealand Oil and Gas (NZOG) said.

Production from Tui started in late July and averaged 44,000 barrels of oil a day in February. Even though Tui was producing for only half of 2007, its arrival meant New Zealand recorded its fourth highest annual production level last year for crude oil and condensate.

In the December quarter exports of crude oil and condensate almost quadrupled from the same quarter in 2006, contributing to a narrowing of New Zealand's trade deficit as oil prices soared. NZOG said 30 shipments of crude oil had been lifted from Tui, with the 31st scheduled for today.

For the year to June Tui was expected to produce 13 million barrels, compared with the pre-production forecast of fewer than 10 million barrels. In November Tui's proved and probable reserves increased by about 50 percent to 41.7m barrels.

Based on the performance of the reservoirs, operator AWE was carrying out a further reserves review to match field performance against actual and expected production, NZOG said. That was expected to be finished by the end of June.

NZOG said the Tui field performance continued to be better than forecast.

Associated water was being produced from the field, but that continued to be at lower rates than expected from original field simulation models, allowing the high oil production rate to continue for longer than expected.