However, it is keeping quiet about rumours that it is planning to shift a lot of its Western Australian staff and corporate support from Perth to the land of the long white cloud.

"Yes, we are planning to expand our New Zealand office, but do not want to comment any further at this stage," OMV NZ commercial and legal director David Salisbury told EnergyReview.Net from Wellington.

"Corporate restructuring of any kind is always sensitive; anything that will be made public . . . what we are doing is our business, at the moment.

"We will make a media statement at some stage, but not yet."

Salisbury said there were no plans "at present" to set up a smaller New Plymouth office to complement OMV NZ's Wellington headquarters. "That is a possibility in the future, but so are lots of things."

He declined to comment further on rumours that most of OMV's Perth 90 staff could be progressively moved to NZ from next year - as the possible billion-dollar Pohokura gas development gears up in earnest and a likely third well in PEP 38413 foreshadows development in that offshore Taranaki licence.

Some Kiwi industry commentators said they would be rather surprised by an almost wholesale switch from Western Australia to Wellington. "Does this mean a shift in emphasis for OMV as Perth would still seem to be a more vibrant place, with more opportunities, than New Zealand?" one wondered.

However, another said such a move was logical - "Pohokura will be huge for them and they are keen to develop Maari as well, almost in tandem, so beefing up their New Zealand presence only makes sense."

Last year OMV took over from Shell NZ as operator of the Maari offshore licence PEP 38413, south of Maui, and drilled the Maari-2 appraisal well last summer.

OMV said then that the results of Maari-2 indicated the field was likely to be commercially viable, with a development scheme based on a FPSO facility, with horizontal producers supported by gas lift and horizontal water injectors.

A later independent report, by Perth-based Resource Investment Strategy Consultants, said the likely P50 level reserves for Maari were 49 million barrels of oil from the Moki and Mangahewa reservoirs, plus the M2Asands, with an additional six million barrels from the more southern Manaia prospect.

More recently, the Pohokura partners - Shell NZ, OMV and Todd Energy - decided not to appeal the Commerce Commission's conditional approval of their joint gas marketing and selling scheme and agreed to work together to meet a tight mid-2006 development deadline. Final financial project approval is, however, not expected until mid-2004.