Royal Dutch Shell plc, the British-Dutch multinational oil and gas major, has recently announced that it has concluded the sale of its shares in Shell’s entities in New Zealand for $578 million to OMV. Apparently, this included the Tank Farm, Pohokura and MÄui assets, and sale of the interest of Shell in (and operatorship of) the Great South Basin venture, that was subject to a separate agreement. Shell stated that the sale is consistent with the global drive of the company towards simplifying the upstream portfolio and re-shaping the company into a world-class investment. Employees of Shell NZ 2011 Limited and Shell Taranaki Limited would now be a part of OMV New Zealand. EVP for New Zealand and Australia, Zoe Yujnovich, was quoted saying that the company has worked in New Zealand for over 100 years and completing the sale of assets to OMV marks a crucial milestone in the history of Shell. Yujnovich further said that the past and present staff of Shell in New Zealand have been quite significant in building a successful New Zealand business. In a statement she wished good luck to her colleagues as OMV would now be taking the business ahead. According to reports, OMV had made an announcement in February saying that it had returned to the black after lowering costs and booking record production. The company concluded selling of its businesses in the UK to Siccar Point Energy Limited, Aberdeen based energy firm, for $1 billion at the beginning of 2017. Also, in 2017 OMV had purportedly increased its output to 377,000 barrels a day, along with dropping costs by 15 percent to $8.8 per barrel. The company had secured pre-tax profits of around £1.3 billion in 2017, in comparison with a deficit of £200 million in the previous year.
