FPSO RAROA

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Medevac off South Taranaki

One worker aboard the FSP 'Raroa' suffered a medical emergency on the oil and gas processing ship off the South Taranaki coast on Aug 9, 2021, and was flown to shore by helicopter in a serious condition. The man, in his 40s, was hoisted from the 'Raroa', which was working in the Maari oilfield, and taken aboard the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter around 11.30 a.m. The contractor had suffered a non-work related medical emergency and was in a serious condition, The wintry weather conditions made for a dicey rescue mission, with head-on winds and then the vessel was pitching in the rolling sea.

Small oil spill after fuel pipe split

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) was monitoring the situation of a small oil spill at the FPSO "Raroa" about 70 kilometres off the Taranaki coastline after about 250 litres of oil was spilt on Feb 20, 2015, when a pipe split during a routine transfer operation. A flight with MNZ observers on board the next morning couldn't find any signs of an oil sheen following the spill. The spill occurred when oil from the "Raroa" was being transferred to the tanker "Nectar". The transfer hose developed a leak close to the connection point on board the "Nectar" and oil spilled onto its deck. The operator, the New Zealand branch of international oil company OMV was tracking the slick, which was about 10 kilometres from the platform yesterday, and had deployed a support vessel with a skimmer for collecting oil. It expected the oil to break up considerably and if it does hit the coast it would arrive as small tar balls.

FPSO Raroa leaves Port Nelson after refit

When the giant oil storage and processing ship Raroa left Port Nelson yesterday it had big deepwater tugs at both ends and one was pulling towards shore. That was to make sure that the ship, which has no engine power of its own, maintained a straight line "and also to act as a brake", Captain Duncan said. "If we looked like we were going to get into any trouble, we could pull the stern off." He said there had been extensive planning which had included computer simulations and "it went very well for us". Port Nelson's two tugs W H Parr and Huria Matenga were also used to get the 250-metre ship, the longest so far to visit the port, safely out of the harbour and through the Cut. The departure was unheralded, with all parties involved in the project remaining vague about it as a precaution against the possibility of anti-oil drilling activists staging a protest. The Port Nelson Ltd shipping list for yesterday had the Raroa scheduled to leave next Monday, November 25. Captain Duncan said it was important to keep the ship's departure plan quiet "in case there were some people who wanted to disrupt that - so it worked". The Raroa arrived on October 28 from the Maari oilfield off Taranaki, where it is permanently moored. It came to have a new 45-tonne swivel fitted, a vital piece of equipment that allows it to rotate around its mooring, and other refit work was also carried out. Report with photo on http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/9416406/Giant-tanker-makes-big-exit