OMV Exits NZ Oil Project

Austria’s OMV is exiting the Maari oilfield off New Zealand, as part of plans to focus more on its gas business.

The company has agreed to sell its 69% stake in the field in New Zealand’s offshore Taranaki basin to Singapore-based Jadestone Energy for $50mn, it said in a notice on November 18. The deal will be closed subject to joint venture and government approvals and backdated to January 1 2019.

Maari has been producing for around a decade and flowed 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day last year.

“The divestment of the Maari field further optimises our portfolio and will shift us in New Zealand to a gas-only producer,” OMV board member Johann Pleininger said. “This underlines OMV’s strategy to produce significantly more natural gas than oil to reduce the carbon intensity of the product portfolio in the future.”

OMV said it would continue operating New Zealand’s Maui and Pohokura gas fields, where it has netted an output of 37,000 boe/day so far this year. It plans to spend $300mn over the next two years on extending the operational lives of the fields.