Shell to fight court rebuff over Maui field

Royal Dutch Shell plans to appeal against a court ruling preventing it from managing New Zealand's biggest gas field.

Shell, which owns 84 per cent of the Maui field, off Taranaki, will ask the Court of Appeal to review a ruling which barred the company and partner OMV AG from replacing Shell Todd Oil Services as operator.

Netherlands-based Shell wants increased control of its gas assets in New Zealand where prices have more than doubled since 2001. The company is leading a $650 million project to tap gas from the Pohokura field, off the North Island, and is drilling for more gas in Maui, where supplies could be exhausted by next year, two years earlier than expected.

"We want to have operatorship of the material oil and gas assets in which we have equity," company spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said.

The High Court last month ruled that Shell Todd would continue as Maui operator.

The 50-year-old company is owned equally by Shell and Wellington-based Todd Energy, and has run Maui since 1978.

- BLOOMBERG