Tamarind planning development wells

Tamarind Resources is progressing plans to drill three development wells and potentially an exploration well in its Tui Area oil field off the coast of Taranaki.
The company has operated the field since March 2017 after seeing an opportunity to rejuvenate the late life asset, says Tamarind Resources New Zealand director and country manager Jason Peacock.
“After acquisition Tamarind Resources undertook a full subsurface reanalysis of the reservoir which resulted in us determining a number of opportunities to extend the life of the field beyond 2022,” Jason says.
The Tui Area oil field includes three oil reservoirs – Tui, Amokura, and Pateke. Oil is produced via five wells connected to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the ‘Umuroa’.
The FPSO has a storage capacity of 700,000 barrels of stabilized crude oil. Jason says the potential to extend the oil field’s life will mean jobs and fl ow on effects for the local economy.
He says the government’s recent decision to not approve any new permits has had no material impact on the development program but may affect the ability to secure off-shore funding for the proposed exploratory well.
“The government announcement has certainly had a chilling effect as the offshore investment community potentially sees New Zealand as higher risk now,” he says. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Tamarind is privately owned.
It was established in 2014 in partnership with global private equity to focus exclusively on oil and gas in Southeast and Australasia building on the Tamarind team’s long history and track record of success in the region.
Tamarind also has a strategic partnership with Triangle Energy (Global) Limited to provide a wide array of technical, commercial and financial support for its Cliff Head oil field and a commercial and technical alliance with South Pacific Resources in various permits in Papua New Guinea.
Jason says that Tamarind is unique in that it focuses on extracting value from late life assets such as the Tui Area oil field.
He says that since Tamarind has assumed operation of the asset the underlying performance of the field has already lifted and is performing better than anticipated.
“Production is holding up and we are encouraged by the performance of the field,” he says.
He says that the Tui Area oil field is operated by a close team who have a long-standing history with the field with many of them working on it since the FPSO was installed in 2007.
Jason credits the success of the field as the result of their wealth of experience and local knowledge. Likewise local collaboration has been important.
For example Tamarind has evolved its business model to form collaborative relationships with other key operators in the Taranaki region, such as Shell, OMV and Beach Energy, to share key resources such as a helicopter and supply vessel.
Jason says this has helped all involved to increase efficiencies and reduce environmental impact.
He says that Tamarind Resources takes pride in ensuring its operations have as low an impact on the local environment as possible and regularly collects data to ensure its footprint remains small.
Likewise there is a great focus on health and safety and he says the company has an excellent reputation in that area also. He says the next two years will be busy for the company and other operators in the region.
“There will likely be a pick up in activity and there is an exciting couple of years of work ahead which will in turn have a fl ow-on effect for the wider New Zealand economy.”
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