04-12-09 Origin Energy New Zealand has begun commissioning the offshore Kupe field with initial production, moving natural gas and liquids ashore via pipeline to a gas processing plant at Hawera.
Full start-up is likely within 2 months, said Andrew Stock, Origin's executive general manager of major development projects.

Kupe gas project participants are Origin (50 %, operator), a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy; Genesis Energy (31 %); New Zealand Oil & Gas (15 %); and Mitsui E&P Australia. (4 %).
Paul Zealand, Origin executive general manager of upstream oil and gas, said once Kupe was in full operations, it would provide 10-15 %/year of the country's gas demand for 15-20 years. Kupe will produce up to 90,000 tpy of LPG, more than 50 % of the country's demand, he said.

Over the project life, Kupe is expected to provide 6.6 bn cm of gas, 1.1 mm tons of LPG, and 14.7 mm bbl of light crude.