Origin Energy Limited advises that as of 12pm EST on 2 April 2008, a fishing assembly was being run in hole in an attempt to recover stuck pipe in the 8-1/2 inch section on the Kupe South 7 (KS-7) well.
On 29 March, the top of the reservoir (Farewell Formation) was intersected with elevated gas shows and drilling of the 8-1/2 inch section on KS-7 had reached a depth of 3,454m MDRT (measured depth from rotary table) before the string became stuck when making a connection.
Drilling began at 22:40 hrs on 19 December 2007. Progress of all three development wells in permit PML 38146 is summarised as follows:
22 inch 17 inch 12-1/4 inch 8-1/2 inch
KS-6 560m 2,000m 2,895m 3,385m
KS-7 566m 2,000m 3,116m 3,454m
KS-8 568m 2,184m 3,429m 3,834m
*Depths are cumulative and show total well depth
Each of the three production wells will be drilled by the ENSCO 107 jack-up drilling rig to a vertical depth of approximately 3,400 metres.
The Kupe Project drilling campaign is being undertaken on a “batch-drilling” basis. This process involves completing the same section of each of the three wells before proceeding to the subsequent section and is a more efficient approach than drilling the wells separately.
Participants in the Kupe Gas Project are:
Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Limited* (Operator) 50%
Wholly owned subsidiaries of Genesis Energy 31%
New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited (through its subsidiaries:
National Petroleum Ltd. 12.75%, Petroleum Equities Ltd. 1.25%
and Nephrite Enterprises Ltd. 1.00%) 15%
Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd 4%
*a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy Limited
For further information please contact:
Media – New Zealand:
Greta Shirley
+64 21 455 922
Investors:
Angus Guthrie, Manager Investor Relations
Origin Energy
Tel: +61 2 8345 5558
Mobile : +61 417 864 255
Email: [email protected]