Enterprise & Energy
Taranaki Community Update Issue 2, July 2013
Andrew Clennett, General Manager Operations, stands in front of the mudtank for Todd’s new rig, situated in Bentec’s fabrication warehouse in Poland.
In this issue Staff profile - Sarah Balsom Traffic management Special site visitors In the community Invitation to community meeting Activity update
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Keeping up with industry best practice
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elcome to our second Community Update. I wanted to share with you some insights from a recent trip I made to Bad Bentheim, Germany and to Poland where I spent time with Todd’s Rig Project Manager Shaun Hemming and Bentec’s project team, who are building Todd’s new drilling rig, the Bentec Model Euro Rig 450t. The team is enthusiastic about our project and it was clear from the outset their experience is well suited to our needs. In particular, many of the operating challenges they experience in Germany and other developments in Europe are similar to what we are experiencing in our community. Bentec understand Todd Energy’s goals around reducing the operating impacts for neighbours and really get the safety imperative too. Bentec are a global leader in drilling rig design and fabrication. I’m confident that Bentec will deliver on its promise of a rig that is quieter, easier to move and more energy efficient, further enhancing the health and safety of our operations.
On my travels I also visited an operating rig north of Calgary in Canada as well as several rigs just outside Denver. The rigs were situated reasonably close to neighbours and roads. It was reassuring to see that some of the same practices that Todd has been implementing in Taranaki were in use over there. Some of the rigs were using flare tanks that reduce light and prevent the need to construct a flare pit. This is something Todd is investigating. While taking me away from our daily operations, trips like this keep us abreast of industry best practice on a global scale, which helps us a lot in being the best neighbour we can. Yours sincerely
Andrew Clennett General Manager Operations Todd Energy
Special site visitors to Mangahewa & McKee We accommodate site visits when we can and over the last six weeks we have had a range of visitors through.
Community forum In May, a group of community forum members visited the McKee Production Station. “We talk a lot at our meetings about the production station, the safety measures and the range of functions managed from the control room, but there is nothing like being able to show them first-hand how it all works and comes together,” said Community Relations Manager Hamish McHaffie.
Ennex students
Above: Hoani Murray and Hamish McHaffie (far left) with students at Mangahewa C
In June, Hamish and Drilling Superintendent Hoani Murray hosted a group of students from Waitara, New Plymouth and Hawera who were involved in the Ennex conference. The Ennex students are all still at high school but are interested in pursuing industry careers as petroleum engineers, drilling engineers, process operators and geologists. Hamish reckons he’s now even got a few of them interested in community relations!
All Black Ma’a Nonu The day before the New Plymouth All Blacks v France match, All Black Ma’a Nonu dropped in to say hello to the team at Mangahewa. The visit was organised by Todd Energy Executive Assistant Louise Hamerton, who prior to joining us worked for the Hurricanes and Wellington Rugby. Left: Louise Hamerton, Ma’a Nonu, Hoani Murray and Iain Hill (Drilling Supervisor)
NPDC meeting- oil and gas development in Tikorangi
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il and gas development in Tikorangi has been an ongoing agenda item for much of the last quarter at New Plymouth District Council meetings. On 11 June, Todd Energy attended in response to an Oil and Gas Development Update report that the Council had tabled at the meeting. We went to listen to community concerns and to respond to any questions about our operations in Tikorangi. We also took the opportunity to talk about our approach to development and our belief that, by working together we can achieve balanced outcomes. Winfred Boeren, General Manager Development and Project Services at Todd Energy, presented at the meeting. A copy of his speech and the live feed from the NPDC meeting can be found on the Community Noticeboard on our website, toddenergy.co.nz.
Staff profile Sarah Balsom, Completions Engineer at Todd Energy the world’s oil fields generally in remote or unstable places, Sarah Balsom knows she’s lucky to be based in WithTaranaki. “Why would you want to live anywhere else? There’s the mountain, the coastline and the culture. It’s safer than Nigeria and a lot warmer than Edinburgh,” she said. Formerly from Napier, she left Massey University with a BTech degree in Chemical Technology, working initially for the Refining NZ, Ruakaka. Her first sojourn in New Plymouth was working for Halliburton, followed by a job with Qatar Petroleum in Doha. Working in Qatar, she took every opportunity to travel with friends and her then-partnernow-husband, Wayne. They visited Syria before the tragic civil war broke out there, Egypt ahead of its current civil unrest and holidayed in Jordan and Lebanon, enjoying each of these ancient countries. “Qatar is a positive place, with a vibrant expatriate community. The attitude there is anything’s possible.”
“Why would you want to live anywhere else? There’s the mountain, the coastline and the culture.”
Today, working in New Plymouth, a typical day at the office for Sarah might involve deciding on equipment to use for the upcoming completion of a well and writing up the set of procedures (programme) for running them; reviewing operations on previous jobs and looking for areas of improvement; visiting workshops to check that equipment preparations are on schedule and tested appropriately; checking inventory levels and ordering new equipment; and heading out to site to check that all equipment is available and ready for use prior to running in the well. “There’s big responsibility but you’re never working alone. It’s a team effort – there are colleagues to discuss challenges with and superiors to advise you.” An interesting area of Sarah’s responsibility is pre-ordering materials for future work: steel, pipes and various other products used to construct a well. Sarah joined Todd Energy in December last year. Left: Sarah Balsom, Completions Engineer, Todd Energy, at Mangahewa C
La-Z-boys donated to Taranaki Hospital
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atients visiting the Emergency Department at Taranaki Base Hospital have been made a little more comfortable with the arrival of two La-Z-boy recliner chairs.
Donated by Todd Energy, the chairs provide some comfort for emergency patients while they wait for treatment or tests. Emergency Department Nurse Manager Cameron Grant-Fargie said being able to elevate the legs easily was proving especially valuable for patients coming to the department with leg or ankle injuries. On an average day the Emergency Department receives 90 patients through its doors. Right: Aleena Well, Registered Nurse – ED, test drives one of the new chairs. Standing, Jill Barron, Clinical Nurse Specialist - Minor Injuries Unit.
Traffic management update Our development at Mangahewa brings with it periods of increased site activity, which in turn increases the traffic on local roads. This is a big issue for us and we are looking for ways to better manage traffic to and from our sites. Initiatives already being undertaken include: reinstating condensate export by pipeline, which allows us to reduce the number of crude tankers on Otaraoa Road running bus services to reduce the number of light vehicles improving logistics management to ensure that trucks delivering equipment to the site, return with a back load whenever possible. To address traffic management issues relating to the existing Mangahewa C and the proposed Mangahewa E well sites, Todd Energy hosted a meeting in May with Tikorangi residents and New Plymouth District Council representatives to discuss solutions. Both Todd Energy and the community attendees suggested to the Council the possibility of placing speed restrictions on all or parts of Otaraoa Road to make it safer for cycling, horse riding and walking. As well as considering speed restrictions, other ideas included establishing walkways or cycleways in the vicinity of the Otaraoa Road/ Tikorangi East Road intersection to create a long-term community asset. Final decisions on mitigation initiatives will ultimately be formalised in a traffic management plan. The primary purpose of the plan will be to minimise adverse effects on the local community. We are currently working with a consultant from Traffic Design Group to progress an approach that takes into account the pros and cons of different options.
Consent variation Todd Energy has submitted a consent variation application to the New Plymouth District Council to authorise existing traffic flows to and from Mangahewa C site. The consent is necessary as current flows are higher than originally anticipated in 2006 when the consent was granted. Left: Helping manage Otaraoa Road traffic during peak school traffic times.
Please join us J U LY
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Tikorangi community meeting Clifton Rugby Club, Tikorangi 6.30pm - 8.00pm
Update and discussion on: MET2 project hydraulic fracturing drilling programme mitigation projects Drinks and nibbles provided Please RSVP to Louise Hamerton lhamerton@toddenergy.co.nz or (06) 759 5549 For further details contact Hamish McHaffie, Community Relations Manager hmchaffie@toddenergy.co.nz
Activity update Mangahewa C – we continue to drill at Mangahewa C site off Tikorangi Road East. We are currently drilling Mangahewa 15, which is the third well on the extended site. The previous well, Mangahewa 13, was drilled in 35 days. Mangahewa D – we have some construction activity down at Mangahewa D, end of Rimutauteka Road. This is both construction of production facilities and site development for future drilling. We expect an increase in truck traffic to and from the site over the next three to four months. Mangahewa E – archaeological investigations have now been completed down Tikorangi Road East. No further work will be completed at Mangahewa E until spring/summer. Managahewa Pipeline –work is drawing to a close for winter and major work will begin again in October. Some minor jobs may be completed over winter, depending on the weather. McKee Production Station - normal operations at the production station. MET2 construction at the back of the production station is progressing well. We expect MET2 modules to arrive in late July and this will result in approximately 10 pilot loads travelling to the production station. They will mobilise to the site over a six week period starting in late July.
toddenergy.co.nz All care has been taken to ensure this information is correct at the time of publication.