OMV, Shell Taranaki Limited Win Big at Inaugural New Zealand Petroleum Conference Awards

OMV and Shell Taranaki Limited were the big winners at the inaugural New Zealand Petroleum Conference awards announced tonight.

 OMV picked up the awards for Exceptional Health, Safety and Environmental Leadership and for Excellence in Community Partnership and Engagement, while Shell Taranaki Limited received the Award for Outstanding Innovation in Oil and Gas. 

Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) Chief Executive Cameron Madgwick says the awards, which were sponsored by Chevron, provided an opportunity to celebrate success within New Zealand’s oil and gas sector.

“The New Zealand petroleum industry has consistently demonstrated high degrees of innovation, strong community engagement, an extraordinary focus on health and safety, and a proud environmental record,” says Mr Madgwick.

“This is the result of the incredible efforts of the many people in our sector who every day work to improve the way our industry operates. But too often, these efforts go unrecognised. These awards aim to rectify that.”

Mr Madgwick says OMV received the award for Exceptional Health, Safety and Environmental Leadership for the installation of an offshore oil recovery skimmer in the Maari Field in June 2016.

“This saw OMV put in place an In-Field Tier 1 oil response capability that could quickly be deployed in a range of potential oil spill responses in the Marri Field.

“The installation of this skimmer has greatly improved OMV’s ability to quickly respond to an incident should it occur,” explains Mr Madgwick.

OMV also received the Award for Excellence in Community Partnership for their support in insulating low income homes in Taranaki.

“Since 2007, OMV have been supporting and co-funding a project with Waitara Initiatives Supporting Employment (WISE) Better Homes, which has seen insulation installed into the homes of low income families identified as having health issues as a result of their poorly insulated, cold and damp living conditions.

“Since 2007, support and funding of approximately $400,000 has gone to this initiative from OMV.”

Shell Taranaki Limited received the award for Outstanding Innovation in Oil and Gas for the work they undertook in the Kapuni 3D seismic survey.

“From April 2015 to August 2016, Shell Taranaki Limited embarked on New Zealand’s largest onshore 3D seismic survey in a bid to extend the life of the country’s longest-serving natural gas field, Kapuni,” says Mr Madgwick.

“The study was the largest and most-advanced survey of its type in New Zealand. Using 30,000 state-of-the-art cable-free nodes, the survey was the equal-highest node deployment worldwide.

“Over an 18-month period, 3,000 face-to-face meetings occurred with over 1,400 hundred landowners, two iwi, five hapū, three local councils as well as other interested parties.

“The local economic impact of the survey was significant. The survey injected $15.9 million into the New Zealand economy, with $6.9 million spent in South Taranaki.

“Local people made up 70 percent of the workforce, and 50 percent had local hapū affiliations, many of whom were upskilled in safety, first aid, NZQA certifications and the use of seismic survey equipment.”

Mr Madgwick congratulated OMV and Shell Taranaki Limited for their achievements in receiving these awards.

“There were a number of high calibre nominations this year, but these three nominations really stood out and were deserving winners of the inaugural New Zealand Petroleum Conference awards.”