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The rig arrived in New Zealand waters, aboard the heavy lift vessel Willift Falcon, early last month.
The ship and rig spent more than two weeks in the sheltered Marlborough Sounds, waiting for the weather to improve sufficiently so the Willift Falcon could move to the drill site and offload the near-new rig, which weighs about 16,000 tonnes and is 157m tall.
Kupe project director Peter Ashford told PetroleumNews.net that the rig had arrived at the Kupe site, 30km off the south Taranaki coast, on Monday night.
He said the rig's first job would be to install the wellhead platform jacket, currently in Port Taranaki aboard the Teras Transporter barge.
“Though the jacket is scheduled to leave the port this weekend, a final decision to move the jacket to location will depend on suitable weather and sea conditions," Ashford said.
The rig will first install the jacket and topsides, then drill the three scheduled development wells, plus the Momoho wildcat well about 5km from planned production facilities in the field's central field area.
The Kupe project is expected to be completed by mid-2009.
The Kupe partners are operator Origin (50%), Genesis Energy (31%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (15%), and Mitsui E&P NZ (4%).
