The vessel, a critical part of the $US245 million ($A293 million) Tui oil field development, arrived off New Plymouth over the weekend after a two-and-a-half week journey from Singapore.

Tui Area operator Australian Worldwide Exploration said the Umuroa would now be anchored over the Tui field, about 50km off Taranaki, and prepared to receive oil from the Tui, Amokura and Pateke oil pools.

The Umuroa would be connected to its turret mooring system, allowing the vessel to weather-vane around the turret allowing year-round production.

AWE said development remained on schedule to produce its first oil by June 30 despite some unfavourable weather in recent months, and the project would pay out within two months if oil prices remained at their current levels.

The most weather-sensitive elements of the subsea installations had been completed and all four subsea well heads successfully installed. These would be progressively connected to the flow lines and umbilicals that connect the subsea wells to the Umuroa.

The semi-submersible Ocean Patriot is presently drilling the Amokura-2H well and will later move to the Pateke-3H well location to complete the final phase of the development drilling.

The Umuroa can process up to 120,000 barrels of fluids per day, including 50,000bbl of oil, and has an oil storage capacity of 730,000bbl.

The FPSO’s owner, Norwegian company Prosafe, will operate and lease the vessel to the Tui partners for an initial five-year period, with the option of extending that for up to another five years.

The PMP 38158 (Tui Area) partners are operator AWE with a 42.5% stake, New Zealand Oil & Gas (12.5%), Mitsui E & P New Zealand (35%) and Pan Pacific Petroleum (10%).