New Zealand Oil and Gas (NZOG) CEO David Salisbury was quoted as saying that the Tui Field has produced the year end June 2008 ( first year in production) over 15 million barrels (mmbbls) of oil -see link, making a one year revenue of $234.6 Million from its 15% stake in this "Joint Venture" field. Obviously, this is good news at first glance, however, The the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) has published in its Energy Data Book- June 2008 that the remaining recoverable reserve of Tui Field is 35.4 mmbbls. A quick calculation will show that Tui will be depleted in about 2 years time on present production rate (or slightly more if operators decide to reduce present production rate).
It is quite understandable that "Joint Venture" should make the best out of present crude oil prices, however, this will bring to question the NZ Government Policy (Crown Minerals) regarding rate of depletion of oil fields as a factor concerning National Energy Security Policy and the well being and good management of the fields. If there is no such policy then we think it is time that (Crown Minerals) should put some restraints on the rate of depletion of fields proportional to their recoverable reserve and the nature of each field. It is important to safeguard the interest of all parties, but we believe that the nation has the right and a stake in the way its natural resources being utilised.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment