Royal Dutch Shell has completed the $578m sale of its shares in New Zealand upstream business to integrated oil and gas company OMV.
The business consists of joint venture (JV) interests in Pohokura (48%) and Maui (83.75%) fields, as well as Tank Farm assets.
Prior to the acquisition, OMV held 26% in Pohokura and 10% in Maui. The company now assumes operatorship in both JVs.
The deal will add recoverable resources of up to 100Mboe to the OMV portfolio.
In the first two months of last year, average production of the acquired assets was around 31,000boe/d.
Announced last March, the deal also included the sale of Shell’s operatorship and 60.98% interest in the Great South Basin exploration block (GSB), which was subject to a separate agreement.
The sale increased OMV’s stake in GSB to 82.93%.
Shell noted that the sale is consistent with the company’s global drive to simplify its upstream portfolio.
Shell Australia and New Zealand executive vice-president Zoe Yujnovich said: “We are proud of having worked in New Zealand for more than 100 years and completion of the sale to OMV marks an important milestone in the company’s history.”
At the time of announcing the deal, OMV CEO and executive board chairman Rainer Seele said that the acquisition is an important step to develop Australasia into a core region in line with its new strategy.
Following the sale, employees of Shell Taranaki and Shell NZ 2011 are now part of OMV New Zealand.
