Austral Pacific Updates Cheal Oil Field Developments & Stakeholder Briefing Strategy
27 July 2007 - 1:54PM
PR Newswire (US)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Austral
Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; Amex: AEN) is pleased
to announce major new developments in the Cheal Oil Field, onshore
Taranaki, New Zealand. Oil, gas and LPG sales contracts agreed
Cheal Oil, gas and LPG sales and marketing contracts have been
finalised and agreed. Commenting on these important contracts, CEO
and President, Thomson Jewell said, "We are extremely pleased to
have all of these contracts in place with such well established
players in the region. These contracts have been the missing pieces
of our marketing puzzle and offer us the opportunity to market more
Cheal oil, gas and LPG as we seek to increase production volumes
later this year." Cheal Production Station fully mechanically
complete The Cheal Production Station is fully mechanically
complete and is going through the very final stages of
pre-commissioning checking before moving into the full
commissioning phase. The entire system will be pressure tested with
water prior to running the plant with hydrocarbons at full
production temperatures and pressures. "This is what all the hard
work has been building to; we are gearing up for the final push and
are fully behind the project team. They are dedicated to running
start up production volumes of about 1000 bopd safely through the
plant and on to the market", said Mr Jewell. Development drilling
plans The next stage in the project is to drill, complete and, in
the success case, tie-in the A5 and A6 development wells. Based on
current understanding of the performance of the existing wells in
the field, and with six wells producing, field flow rates in excess
of 1900 bopd are possible. However, Mr Jewell noted that the
performance of the individual wells will continue to be optimised
in keeping with good reservoir management practice. "A possible
trade-off between production rates and reserve recovery is a
natural part of field development and should allow us to maximise
the reserves recovered from these reservoirs. As a result we
envisage that we will be producing between 1400-1500 bopd after A5
and A6 are drilled and tied in, towards the end of this year. We
expect that we will increase and maintain our production output
with successes from our planned drilling campaign which will target
the additional prospects that we uncovered with our detailed 3D
seismic survey." Stakeholder briefing programme The Company is
implementing a new stakeholder briefing programme; this is the
first output of a comprehensive strategic review that began in May
2007. Commenting on the new programme, Mr Jewell said, "As a Junior
E&P Company, our major goals are to return value to our
shareholders and to provide a growth pathway that is visible,
achievable and sustainable. During the significant changes of the
past year, we have been focusing on getting our best projects up
and running. We have the most difficult part of that task behind us
and we are now concentrating additional efforts on communicating
with the market. We want our stakeholders to be able follow the
Company's progress towards its growth targets." Future plans Mr
Jewell believes these success stories are major milestones for the
Company. "We see a great future ahead of us, and we want to make it
clear that our shareholders will play a pivotal role in our
continued success. Watch this space." Annual General Meeting
Scheduled More details on these projects and the Company's
strategies for growth will be discussed at the Company's annual
general and special meeting of shareholders on August 22, 2007 in
Vancouver, B.C. and at the later briefing for shareholders on
September 12 in Wellington, New Zealand (venue details as
previously announced). The Company will also be presenting at the
Good Oil Conference (4th September, Fremantle, Australia) and the
New Zealand Oil & Gas Expo (12th September, New Plymouth, New
Zealand). Web site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/
http://www.austral-pacific.com/ Email: Phone: Thom Jewell, CEO +64
(4) 495 0880 None of the Exchanges upon which Austral Pacific's
securities trade have approved or disapproved the contents hereof.
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable
legislation. Other than statements of historical fact, all
statements in this release addressing future production, reserve
potential, exploration and development activities and other
contingencies are forward-looking statements. Although management
believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking
statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are
not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or
developments may differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, due to factors such as market prices,
exploration and development successes, continued availability of
capital and financing, and general economic, market, political or
business conditions. See our public filings at
http://www.sedar.com/ and
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for further
information. DATASOURCE: Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. CONTACT: Thom
Jewell, CEO of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd., +64 4 495 0880, Web
site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/
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