Oil Search was the largest oil and gas exploration and development company incorporated in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, which operates all of Papua New Guinea's

oilfield A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presenc ...

s. In December 2021, it merged with the Australian company Santos.

History

Oil Search was founded in 1929. It was one of Papua New Guinea's largest companies, and in 2006 was responsible for 13% of Papua New Guinea's gross domestic product.Profile
at official site It was publicly listed on the

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

and

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

s. It had a market capitalization of around US$12 billion. A 17.6% interest in the company was held by the

Government of Papua New Guinea The politics of Papua New Guinea takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic multi-party system, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Papua New Guinea is an independent Commonwealth realm, with the mo ...

, The company also operates areas in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, and the

Kurdistan region of Iraq Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duho ...

. In May 2014,

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

shipped the first cargo of

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...

(LNG) from the US$19 billion PNG LNG Project, in which Oil Search owns a 29% interest. In 2021, Oil Search agreed terms with Santos to merge, with Oil Search shareholders taking a 38.5% shareholding in Santos. The merger took effect on 14 December 2021.Santos and Oil Search merger becomes effective
Santos 10 December 2021

References

External links

Official site
Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Dual-listed companies Oil and gas companies of Papua New Guinea 1929 establishments in Papua New Guinea Australian companies disestablished in 2021 Energy companies established in 1929 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1929 Energy companies disestablished in 2021 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 2021 2021 mergers and acquisitions {{petroleum-company-stub