The appeal court has refused to lift an interim injunction won by Todd earlier this year that stopped directors of Shell Todd Oil Services – an unincorporated body jointly owned by Shell and Todd -- voting to remove STOS as operator of the Pohokura and Maui fields.

Shell and Todd have three directors each on the STOS board, but one Shell director also has the casting vote.

Shell had appealed to the Court of Appeal to have the Todd injunction lifted and to use its casting vote to take over as Pohokura, Maui and Kapuni operator from STOS, which also operates the McKee and Mangahewa fields on behalf of Todd.

The Court of Appeal found Todd's arguments – that STOS had existed for a long time and moves to remove it as operator of several fields would be seriously disruptive for STOS and its staff - persuasive.

It also found Shell's arguments relied significantly on acceptance of the view that “Shell knows best”.

So any resolution of the matter now looks to be many months away.

In other news, Todd’s submission to the Electricity Commission - regarding Transpower’s controversial proposed NZ$500 million upgrade of the national grid into Auckland – hinted that the company may be forced to think about importing LNG to bolster its gas supplies beyond 2015.

Todd Energy is proposing to build up to three new gas-fired power stations to satisfy Auckland’s voracious appetite for energy. It said there was sufficient existing reserves gas to supply at least one 200MW plant.

The submission also said that in addition to increasing its own exploration activities, Todd had already embarked on “getting gas to New Zealand from offshore”.

New Zealand’s two largest gas users, Contact Energy and Genesis Energy, last year launched a study into the economics of importing LNG. They are also known to be investigating the viability of importing gas as CNG.