Business
Austral Pacific Opens Cheal Production Station
Austral Pacific Opens Cheal Production Station.
About this update from Apex Resources Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nWELLINGTON, New Zealand, Oct. 12 /CNW/ -- Austral Pacific Energy Ltd.\n(TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; Amex: AEN) has commissioned its Cheal oil and gas\nproduction facility in onshore Taranaki, New Zealand. The production facility\nwas officially opened this week by New Zealand's Associate Energy Minister,\nHarry Duynhoven, who labeled it a springboard for further growth for the\ncompany. The $NZ30 million facility is unique in New Zealand; it has been\npurpose-built to facilitate the extraction, production and transportation of\nCheal oil, which is waxy and similar to that found in the onshore\nNgatoro/Kaimiro and offshore Maari fields.\n\n\nTo date, Cheal has produced more than 212,000 barrels of oil at rates of\nup to 1000 barrels per day from the "A" and "B" sites. Daily production is\ncurrently around 400 barrels as Austral Pacific, as the field operator,\nfollows the asset management plan and moves off cost-inefficient temporary\nequipment to allow the installation of permanent connections between the main\n'A' site and the satellite 'B' site.\n\n\n"We believe that preserving long term asset value should be an integral\npart of a timetabled asset management plan, and there is little point in\nproducing oil at high costs, now that we have commissioned our own state of\nthe art facility less than 2km away," said the Company's Chief Executive\nOfficer and President Thompson Jewell.\n\n\n"Once we have connected in the 'B' site over the coming weeks, we will\nbring our production back up to rates of between 850-1000 barrels per day. The\nnext step is to drill and complete two more wells at the 'A' site which are\nplanned to increase daily production by a further 50%."\n\n\nWith the production station now complete, there is also considerable\nscope to further increase daily production when the play trend is further\ntapped into over the coming year. "There is significant potential for further\nupside in this project and we are excited at the prospects for further\ngrowth," said Jewell.\n\n\nThe presentation given at the opening ceremony, the Associate Minister's\nSpeech and a presentation given at the IPAA Oil and Gas Investment Symposium\nare available for download at http://www.austral-pacific.com.\n\n\nUpdate on Corporate Matters\n\n\nFurther to the Company's news release of ...