Jadestone, OMV extend long-stop date for Maaki field buy

Oil and gas companies Jadestone Energy and OMV’s New Zealand arm have agreed to give themselves more time to complete the transaction for the Maari offshore field in New Zealand.

Jadestone entered into an agreement with OMV for the acquisition of a 69 per cent operated working interest in the Maari asset back in November 2019.

The acquisition was supposed to be completed in 2020. Despite several delays, Jadestone said in March 2021 it was committed to closing the deal. As the effective date remains 1 January 2019, Jadestone will ultimately receive all economic benefits of the Maari interest from that date.

In early June, Jadestone Energy stated that it expects to complete the acquisition of the Maari asset from OMV in the second half of 2021.

At the time, the Singapore oil company said that it continued working with the seller to satisfy the remaining outstanding conditions to complete the acquisition, in particular the approval of New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (NZP&M). 

Jadestone said on Wednesday that the company and OMV New Zealand agreed to extend the long-stop date under the Maari sale and purchase agreement to 31 August 2021.

“Both OMV New Zealand and the company continue to work to satisfy the remaining outstanding conditions and to complete the transaction”, Jadestone said.

As for the field, it is producing oil via the FPSO Raora located in the South Taranaki Bight, approximately 80 kilometres off the coast of Taranaki, New Zealand. Production from the field began in February 2009.