Beach Energy lines up New Zealand development work

Beach Energy, an oil and gas E&P company based out of Australia, is lining up two development wells at Kupe gas field offshore New Zealand, the company said June 10.

This is part of a phase 2 development that was always part of Kupe's field life plan. The offshore Taranaki Basin asset is expected to produce at a plateau rate of 77 TJ/day, following completion of an inlet compression project last October.

Kupe lies around 30km off New Zealand's North Island in licence PML38146. The phase 2 project is expected to kick off in late 2022 or early 2023, subject to rig availability, weather conditions and approvals.

Kupe's was discovered in the 1980s in New Zealand Oil & Gas, which remains the project's minority partner. At peak output, it is expected to meet around 15% of the national gas requirement and is still considered an essential component of New Zealand's energy infrastructure.

The field got a reserves upgrade in 2020. Following the new assessment, Kupe is estimated to hold net 2P reserve potential of 2.3mn barrels of oil equivalent, up from 1.8mn boe previously.