Purchase of FPSO Raroa announced; MODEC awarded contract

OMV New Zealand

Media statement

14 November, 2012

Purchase of FPSO Raroa announced; MODEC awarded operations contract

Operator of the Maari Field, OMV New Zealand, today announced the Maari Joint Venture’s decision to exercise its option to purchase the Floating Processing, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel Raroa.

The Raroa has been operating at the offshore Maari oil field since 2009 and is currently leased from Tablelands Development Ltd to the Maari Joint Venture. The lease includes an option to purchase the Raroa after the fourth contract year at a pre-agreed buy-out price.
“We see the purchase of the Raroa as an integral part of our investment strategy for the Maari Field. We plan to tie in new reservoirs through drilling of additional wells. Ownership of the Raroa will give us both flexibility and control, which is particularly important in terms of upgrades and refurbishment that may be required to meet anticipated field life and production,” Peter Zeilinger, Managing Director of OMV New Zealand stated.
The transfer of ownership will be effective as of March 8, 2013.

MODEC Management Services Pte Ltd has been awarded a contract to provide operations and maintenance services for the Maari Field. The initial contract period is until the end of 2017 with options to extend in two year increments. MODEC currently operates 15 FPSO vessels worldwide, including three offshore Western Australia. It is considered one of the world’s leading providers of operations and maintenance services for floating production units.

The award was based on an extensive pre-qualification and tendering process carried out by OMV, on behalf of the Maari Joint Venture, over the past year.

Mr Zeilinger said they were pleased to be working with MODEC and looking forward to benefiting from their vast international experience in operations and maintenance.

“We wanted to engage with a service provider with extensive international capabilities and experience and we wanted the services to focus on the offshore facilities’ safety, integrity and efficiency.We feel that we have achieved these goals.”

OMV New Zealand Ltd holds 69% interest in the Maari permit and operates it on behalf of joint venture partners Todd Maari Ltd. (16%), Horizon Oil International Ltd. (10%) and Cue Taranaki Pty Ltd. (5%).

Note to editors:

The Maari Field is New Zealand’s largest producing oil field and recently reached a production milestone of 20 million barrels from the field. First production at Maari occurred in February 2009.

The Floating Processing, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel Raroa is a converted oil tanker which was modified at the Jurong shipyard in Singapore. It is approximately 250 metres long and 40 metres wide. It came to New Zealand in 2008 and has been moored on the Maari site since then and sits about 1.5 kilometres from the wellhead platform (WHP) Tiro Tiro Moana.

The Raroa’s main function is to separate the raw production from the wells into oil, gas and water and then store oil for offloading to a conventional tanker. It has storage capacity for about 600,000 barrels and a daily production capacity of up to 40,000 barrels of oil per day.

About OMV in New Zealand

OMV New Zealand is the country’s largest liquid hydrocarbon producer, the third largest gas producer, and a major explorer in offshore Taranaki and the Great South Basin off the coast of the South Island.

It has been active here since 1999 when it acquired shares in the Maari oil discovery which it developed and now operates. Focusing strictly on exploration and production in New Zealand, OMV New Zealand currently holds shares in the Maui and Pohokura gas fields and the Maui pipeline. In addition, OMV New Zealand also has a number of offshore exploration permits in the Taranaki and Great South Basin regions.

OMV has invested over NZ$1.6 billion in New Zealand to date. In 2011, it paid over $221M to the Crown in taxes and royalties.

OMV New Zealand is a subsidiary of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, also known as the OMV Group.

OMV Aktiengesellschaft

With Group sales of EUR 34.05 bn and a workforce of 29,800 employees in 2011, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Exploration and Production, OMV is active in two core countries Romania and Austria and holds a balanced international portfolio. OMV had proven oil and gas reserves of approximately 1.13 bn boe as of year-end 2011 and a production of around 288,000 boe/d in 2011. In Gas and Power, OMV sold approximately 272 TWh of gas in 2011. In Austria, OMV operates a 2,000 km long gas pipeline network with a marketed capacity of around 101 bcm in 2011. With a trading volume of around 40 bcm in 2011, OMV’s gas trading platform, the Central European Gas Hub, is amongst the most important hubs in Continental Europe. In Refining and Marketing, OMV has an annual refining capacity of 22 mn t and as of the end of 2011 approximately 4,500 filling stations in 13 countries including Turkey. OMV further strengthened its position through the ownership of a 97% stake in Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading company in the retail and commercial business.

ENDS

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