Petrocorp, formally the Petroleum Corporation of New Zealand Limited, is a former

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

that was formed in 1978. It was sold by the

Fourth Labour government The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand governed New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It was the first Labour government to win a second consecutive term since the First Labour Government of 1935 to 1949. The policy agenda o ...

in 1988 to

Fletcher Challenge Fletcher Challenge was a multinational corporation from New Zealand. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Fletcher Holdings, Challenge Corporation and Tasman Pulp and Paper. It had holdings in construction, forestry, building, and energy, init ...

and became the Fletcher Energy group. The company was created to undertake the government's petroleum exploration activities and was involved in the

Maui gas field The Maui natural gas field is the largest gas, natural gas condensate and oil field in New Zealand, producing nearly three-quarters of the country's hydrocarbons, as well as providing energy for electricity generation. It is located in the Tasman ...

. Through an agreement formed on 1 October 1973 Petrocorp became a 50% owner, with Todd Corporation, BP and Shell of the Offshore Mining Company Limited which developed and then sold gas from the Maui field. These companies became known as the Maui Partners.

Assets

The corporation wholly owned the Natural Gas Corporation, which, in turn, owned gas transmission pipelines from

Kapuni Kapuni is an onshore natural gas-condensate field located in the Taranaki Basin, a ~100,000 km2 partially-inverted rift basin on the Taranaki Peninsula in the North Island, New Zealand. Discovered in 1959 and brought into production in 1970, ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and Kapuni to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, and the Kapuni Gas Treatment Plant.

Sale

In 1987, Petrocorp became a publicly-listed company on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, due to a 30% share sell down by the government. Petrocorp issued new shares that represented 30% of the total shares in the company, and 15% were sold by tender to Fletcher Challenge with the remainder offered via a share float. On 3 March 1988, Fletcher Challenge agreed to purchase the remaining 70% of the government's shares in the company for NZ$801 million via a "put and call" agreement. This was the same price previously offered by

British Gas plc British Gas plc was an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It was formed when the British Gas Corporation was privatised as a result of the Gas Act 1986, instigated by the government of Margaret Thatcher and superseding the G ...

but rejected because of conditions requested by British Gas on the sale. The final transaction involved the purchase of shares in PetroCorp by Fletcher Challenge with payment in Fletcher Challenge shares that were then sold by the government on 16 December 1993.

References

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External links

New Zealand Treasury
Oil and gas companies of New Zealand Non-renewable resource companies established in 1978 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1988 1988 disestablishments in New Zealand New Zealand companies established in 1978 Energy companies established in 1978 Energy companies disestablished in 1988 Defunct energy companies of New Zealand