Programme

In one generation, Qatar has become the richest nation on earth. Underpinning much of this wealth creation has been Qatar’s focus on synergy opportunities to minimise costs and maximise profit. We use learnings to explore the value of a synergy approach in New Zealand; particularly in the context of end-of-life fields, aged-infrastructure and marginal new-finds.

This paper presents findings of a multidisciplinary research project into options and attitudes regarding end-of-life options for offshore structures in New Zealand. Regulatory, environmental, cost-benefit and social studies combine to consider whether feasible re-use options exist for offshore structures after production activities cease, and if these options would be acceptable to the New Zealand community.

The EPA has been processing discharge consents under the EEZ Act since 31 October 2015. This presentation will provide a candid view of how things are tracking; what works well, what is not working so well, and possible challenges for re-approvals. It will be a frank assessment of our work and that of applicants.

A representative from the government’s cross-agency working group on offshore decommissioning will present an outline of the policy proposals for the proposed EEZ decommissioning regulations and provide an overview of the feedback from public consultation.

Using data from a twelve-month deployment of seven state-of-the art passive acoustic monitoring devices, we will present novel results on the ambient environment and distribution of marine mammals in New Zealand’s Cook Strait region.

The EEZ Act requires operators to undertake monitoring to assess environmental effects from drilling and monitor the recovery of benthic communities over time.  This presentation provides an overview of environmental monitoring requirements, how a benthic monitoring programme is developed, different monitoring methodologies, an overview of observed environmental effects, and observations of seabed recovery through time.

GNS Science has trialled the deliberative engagement model as a means to assist communities weigh up the potential risks and benefits of petroleum exploration.

Everybody needs good neighbours: learnings from the Trans-Tasman Resources application for overlapping interests. Join Russell McVeagh’s panel of experts to delve into overlapping interests in the petroleum and minerals sector, viewed through their recent experience in the Trans-Tasman Resources application.

This paper uses case studies to discuss the challenges of meeting the certainty and “best available information” tests required to obtain consent in cases where the full scope of the activity and its potential effects are not yet fully defined

This presentation presents a summary of the development options for a large discovery of a rich gas condensate in the Canterbury basin.  How would the produced products be brought to market? Is there a gas market and if so, what is it comprised of? A co-commissioned, independent study is part of the story.

Determining liability for wells drilled by a previous permit holder can be vexed, but plainly someone needs to take responsibility for abandonment. This presentation looks at the mix of regulatory, contractual and practical issues and examines what could be in NZP&M’s toolbox, by reference to other jurisdictions

The oil and gas industry operates against a backdrop of rapidly-evolving environmental and social standards; driven by stakeholders, regulators and the corporate commitments of operators themselves. This paper explores the advantages of proactive non-technical risk management, when to integrate it into the project lifecycle and how to achieve the ‘best practicable’ outcome.

This presentation is an overview of Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and Ōtākou Rūnaka expectations for oil and gas companies in East Otago. The presentation is based on their last 10 years’ combined experience published in book form in July 2017.

This paper describes the ways in which employees consider and respond to messaging around safety, and outlines five key elements to managing people to genuinely improve safety performance and deliver value from your safety investment.

Miocene sedimentation rates and distributions in the southern Taranaki Basin record both local and plate boundary scale deformation. Here we analyse the Miocene strata and show how four main phases of development can be identified and temporally correlated with changing plate boundary convergence rates, and how this influences the deposition of reservoir and seal units.

The Miocene outcropping stratigraphy of an active trench-slope basin, East Coast Basin – New Zealand, provides an understanding of depositional elements within this active petroleum system. The seismic scale elements observed in outcrop are recognisable in the offshore seismic and deliver valuable learnings for the tectonically controlled fill and spill of this slope basin province.

Located onshore Taranaki Basin, the Cardiff gas discovery was initially made by STOS in 1992. Subsequent exploration by Austral Pacific (2004) and TAG Oil (2013) also failed to establish a commercial discovery in the Paleogene aged Kapuni Group. Our recent appraisal campaign has raised several intriguing observations at Cardiff, which by all accounts could path the way to future commercialisation.

Rock pore typing technology is developed for the tight gas sand Mangahewa reservoirs in the Taranaki basin to predict reservoir flow performance. This work shows laboratory NMR pore size distribution provides similar information as MICP and is used in a Darcy permeability model to quantify the distribution of reservoir permeability.

In this case study, we demonstrate the integration of the CLA technique, non-linear processing workflow and modern noise attenuation techniques in delivering the high quality data for improved interpretability of the image of the prospects in Pegasus Basin.

In this paper we present and interrogate compositional data for Cretaceous reservoirs in Canterbury and Great South basins. The sandstones exhibit an extremely wide range of textures and detrital compositions, which are discussed relative to facies, provenance, diagenesis, and reservoir quality. These results can be used to predict areas of good quality sandstone in the region.

We integrate new U-Pb (zircon) and fission track (apatite and zircon) ages for Torlesse Complex (basement) with regional geology to (i) map the extent of E. Miocene uplift and erosion within East Coast Basin and the extent of a related unconformity within the Cenozoic succession, and (ii), to establish the precise timing of the end of Cretaceous subduction.

Several New Zealand fields display unusual fluid properties whereby the measured saturation pressure is at or greater than reservoir pressure. This is an unusual phenomenon when compared to the majority of producing fields globally.

This paper seeks to find the answer to the question of whether this tells us something about Geology or vice versa

WestSide Corporation New Zealand acquired the Manutahi Field in November 2016. A review of the OOIP and development strategy was carried out. This talk will outline the forward operating model and the technical work associated with the creation and execution of this plan.

As part of the next phase of development on the Managhewa and McKee assets Todd Energy recognised that improved seismic imaging was key to optimising well placement for increased reserves recovery. This presentation addresses the survey design concepts that mitigated the impact of the challenges faced by the project and delivered a development quality dataset for the life cycle of the fields.

The 1997 basement geological map of Taranaki Basin has been updated. There are some major changes including revision of granite boundaries under the western part of the basin. The new map will be useful for tracking the source of sandstones, interpreting basin tectonics and developing heat flow models.

PGS has acquired their first MultiClient GeoStreamer seismic data in the Taranaki Basin with the Taranaki South MC3D and Taranaki West MC3D surveys. It will be demonstrated how these surveys have facilitated the building of a robust and rapid screening-level prospect portfolio to high-grade areas of interest.

This presentation discusses new diamondoid hydrocarbon results that clarify the thermal maturities and charge histories of some important oil and gas accumulations, including those within the Maui, Maari, and Manaia fields in Taranaki Basin, Galleon-1 and Clipper-1 in Canterbury Basin, and Kawau-1A in Great South Basin.

Romney-1 was the first well drilled in the Deep-water Taranaki Basin.  Although no commercial hydrocarbons were discovered, the well largely confirmed the geological prognosis and gave reason to believe that large volumes of mature source rocks are present within the basin.

Case studies highlighting the use of piggable and non-piggable leak-tight isolation tools for repair and maintenance of pressurised pipelines. These tools provide temporary double block and bleed isolation where incumbent valves do not exist at appropriate locations in the system.

The Nikau 3D MSS acquired for OMV NZ Ltd. in 2016 combined modern broadband acquisition using PGS’ solid Geo Streamer with a triple source acquisition setup, which – compared to a conventional dual source array – led to a reduction of acquisition time of 30% without impeding data quality.

Asset integrity inspection data stored and visualised in an accurate spatial framework allows for planning and analyses to be performed in a geographic dimension. For example, risk-based inspection consequence models can be graphically shown in 3D. Laser scanning is providing the infrastructure for this concept to be realised.

This presentation will aim to increase general understanding of cyber security risk for oil & gas, especially in relation to industrial control systems. Stakeholders and leaders will be able to better understand current and target cyber security posture and how risks can be identified, prioritised, addressed and managed as part of ongoing risk management.

New Zealand petroleum exploration and production sectors are highly exposed to volcanic hazards from the active volcano, Mt. Taranaki. Any future eruption will likely impact these sectors abilities to function and produce gas. This project is assessing volcanic risk to the petroleum exploration and production sectors, to enable more informed emergency response planning and mitigation.

Innovative well abandonment technologies are developing rapidly for offshore assets. Application of these technologies presents a unique challenge for operators to ensure safe and efficient decommissioning. This presentation outlines an adaptable approach to qualify and apply the most suitable technology for the abandonment challenge and how this was successfully applied in the Maari field.

New Zealand has significant energy resources near the strategically located Taranaki region. Natural gas can be converted to methanol, which is easily transportable to consumers within or outside of New Zealand. Various configurations for gas to methanol shall be discussed with options for CO2 capture and recycle to produce more methanol per unit natural gas.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key transformational technology in the hydrocarbons industry. A number of large-scale CCS projects are successfully operating but not at the scale required to support the Paris Accord. Drawing on practical global experiences, key lessons learned to enable the business case of CCS projects will be shared

The presentation will systematically discuss how the geomechanics plays role in making a hydraulic fracture productive or unproductive with respect to well trajectory, perforations, proppant, fracturing fluid and pumping schedule, and how post-treatment fracture simulations help in devising mitigation strategies for a fractured well and improved design for wells.

Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa and DETA Consulting are delivering the first Capstone turbine generation project in NZ at Hanmer, using geothermal methane from the smallest mining permit in NZ, and the first mining permit without an exploration permit.

WestSide presents a review of their recently completed gas lift installation at their RKM field in South Taranaki.