Shell Sells New Zealand Gas Pipeline

The Māui Mining Companies (MMCs) confirmed the sale of the Māui natural gas pipeline in New Zealand to infrastructure funds managed by First State Investments.

In a statement released Tuesday, Shell, which owns 83.75 percent stake in MMCs, said the sale price is NZ$335 million ($227mn).

The pipeline was built exclusively for delivering gas from the Māui natural gas field in the 1970s.  

The sale is conditional on certain regulatory approvals being obtained by First State Investments but the parties hope to finalise the transaction by the middle of 2016.

Shell stated that the future of the Māui pipeline has been under consideration for a long time by the MMCs and is separate from the review of the Shell New Zealand business announced recently.

First State Investments is an Australian based global infrastructure asset manager that also recently agreed to purchase 100 percent of Vector Gas Limited (VGL) from Vector Limited.  VGL owns the Vector gas transmission network and a major part of its gas distribution network in New Zealand.