Private Malaysian oil and gas company Tamarind Management Sdn. Bhd. has completed its buyout of interest holders in Tui oil fields offshore New Zealand’s north island. Tamarind now has 100% ownership of the field.
The company has purchased the 27.5% stake held by New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. subsidiary Stewart Petroleum Co. Ltd. for $750,000.
The company also bought Pan Pacific Petroleum Ltd.'s 15% stake in the fields in a deal that involves the sale of Pan Pacific’s subsidiary WM Petroleum Ltd., which owned the Tui stake. Tamarind is to pay $400,000 for WM Petroleum. On completion of the transaction, Pan Pacific will make a net payment to Tamarind of $5.45 million in the form of cash and inventory.
The two deals follow Tamarind’s purchase of AWE Ltd.’s 57.5% interest in Tui fields in December 2016 for $1.5 million.
The Tui fields—Tui, Amokura, and Pateke—lie in permit PMP 38158 in the offshore Taranaki basin 50 km from the Taranaki coast.
The outgoing companies believe the Tui fields are nearing the end of their economic life and they had begun preparations for abandonment within the next few years.
However, Tamarind, which was established in August 2014, has shown an ability to maximize value from late-life assets as well as having experience in decommissioning offshore projects. The company plans to introduce new ways to possibly prolong the fields beyond 2019.
Production from all three Tui fields is fed into the Tui gathering system that then leads to the Umuroa floating production, storage, and offloading vessel.