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Port Taranaki chief executive Roy Weaver confirmed to EnergyReview.net today that his company had started High Court proceedings to detain the vessel in port because of unpaid port dues, berthing fee and services.
Detaining the ship was unavoidable, Weaver said, but he hoped the parties directly involved – Port Taranaki and the ship’s owner, German firm SAL Shipping – would resolve the matter quickly before court proceedings progressed.
Bailiffs from the High Court in New Plymouth boarded the vessel yesterday afternoon and served a warrant of arrest on the ship’s master.
SAL Shipping now has 14 days to appear in court or risk losing the ship if the court decides to order it to be sold to recompense Port Taranaki for port expenses that are rumoured to be up to $NZ10,000 ($A8200) a day.
The Annegret had been due to sail today for the Nelson region, probably to sheltered waters to lay up while it continues to wait to unload the 415-tonne Pohokura jacket off the Motunui coast, north of New Plymouth.
The vessel arrived in Port Taranaki from Fremantle in early March with the 55m-high steel jacket aboard. It was scheduled to shortly afterwards load the New Plymouth-manufactured 155t topsides module, before offloading the jacket and topsides at the Pohokura offshore drill site.
But major technical hitches, including instability of the seabed at the offshore site, delayed the securing of the Ensco Rig 56 jack-up by about three months.
However, the rig is now successfully positioned and working to install the first of eight conductors.
Afterwards, the positioning of the jacket and topsides at the well site should allow the spudding of the first of six planned offshore development wells.
Despite these further problems, Pohokura operator Shell Exploration New Zealand remains confident of getting first gas ashore from the $US600 million ($A819 million) project sometime this year.
“We continue to expect first gas later in 2006,” said SENZ spokesperson Jacqueline Baker. She said the seizure of the Annegret was a matter for the ship’s owners and the port company to resolve.
