OMV headquarters in Vienna. Photo: AFP
The country's biggest oil and gas producer has taken its New Zealand assets off the market.
In an announcement on its website, Austrian-based OMV said its executive board decided the company would no longer pursue the sales process for 100 percent of its shares in OMV New Zealand Limited.
The statement said OMV NZ would remain part of the exploration and production portfolio of OMV.
The company gave no reason for the decision.
OMV has a 69 percent stake in the Maari oil field, 74 percent of the Pohokura gas field, and full ownership of the Maui field - all of which are off the Taranaki coast - as well as three offshore exploration permits, and onshore storage facilities.
The Maari oil field and Raroa floating production station. Photo: Supplied
It entered New Zealand in 1999 but had a significant expansion in operations when it purchased the production operations of Shell NZ for US$578 million in 2018.
OMV first announced it was looking for a buyer in 2023.
"OMV, in co-ordination with competent regulators and governmental authorities, will invite potentially interested parties, in a first step, to submit expressions of interest and, in a second step, to submit binding offers," the company said at the time, adding the process was expected to take several months.
A year earlier, OMV said it would be reshaping its global business by reducing oil and gas production by 20 percent by 2030 and ending it completely by 2050.
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