42000bopd 300k in tanker fck yes, page-2

AWE’s Tui Area Oil Project opened by
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Clark and
sends first oil shipment to refineries

The Tui Area Oil Project was officially opened by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark
earlier today at a ceremony in New Plymouth.
The ceremony coincided with AWE Ltd completing the first lifting of crude oil from the
project.
On Thursday August 16, a cargo of approximately 300,000 barrels of high quality Tui crude
was transferred from the Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) vessel, Umuroa,
to the tanker Akama for shipment to refineries in Sydney and Brisbane operated by Caltex
Australia.
The Akama has been chartered on a long-term basis and is dedicated to the transportation
of Tui crude oil.
AWE Ltd’s Tui Area Oil Project, offshore New Zealand’s Taranaki coast, started production
on July 30, 2007.
Commissioning of the Tui Area production wells and subsea systems has progressed
without incident and three of the four wells are now on line, with a combined estimated
production capacity in excess of 90,000 bopd.
The fourth well is expected to be available when required to maintain maximum production.
A stable crude oil flow rate of up to 42,000 bopd has been achieved through the FPSO. As
expected during project commissioning, production has been slightly constrained by the
FPSO topsides facility, which is designed to handle a maximum 50,000 bopd.
However system uptime is improving quickly as experience in operating the new facility is
gained. Some minor process de-bottlenecking is being implemented which is expected to
allow the full design production rate to be achieved within the next few weeks.
Preliminary testing of samples taken from the production wells suggest the oil properties
and quality are in line with pre-production expectations.