OMV has produced first oil from its Maari redevelopment drilling campaign in New Zealand, a press release said. The campaign, also known as the Maari Growth project, aims to increase reserves, production and recovery from the producing Maari Field.

The well, known as MR-8A, was started on Nov. 28 producing from a previously undrained compartment in the Maari Field. The well was side-tracked out of an abandoned injection well and drilled horizontally into the Moki Formation to a total length of 3,824 m (12,546 ft). The production capacity for this well has been estimated at 4,500 bbl/d of oil.

The Maari Growth campaign includes the drilling of five wells into producing and new reservoirs.

The Maari Field is located in a water depth of 100 m (328 ft) about 80 km (50 miles) off the Taranaki coast of New Zealand. The field was developed by OMV New Zealand as operator of the Maari Joint Venture (JV) and began production in February 2009. The field production has since declined from peak rates of about 25,000 boe/d.

The Maari JV partners are OMV New Zealand Ltd. (69%, operator), Todd Maari Ltd. (16%), Horizon Oil International Ltd. (10%) and Cue Taranaki Pty. Ltd. (5%).