The company said that the wells, pipeline and production facility are mechanically complete, all regulatory approvals have been achieved and the facility has been handed over for commissioning ready to produce oil and gas.
The wells were shut-in as part of the planned, phased installation of the permanent connections to the production facility. They will be brought back online in a managed manner and are planned to increase total Cheal oil production to approximately 700 barrels of oil per day by end 2007.
Cheal is a producing oil and gas field south of Stratford in onshore Taranaki, New Zealand. It is 69.5% owned by Austral, which is also the field operator. The field comprises four active wells, contains 2.6 million barrels of independently certified oil reserves and around 1.8 billion cubic feet of associated gas.
