January 1974 the Government of Oman acquired a 25% shareholding in the Petroleum Development (Oman); six months later the shareholding was increased to 60%, backdated to the beginning of the year. As a result, the foreign interest in PD(O) was now made up of the Shell (34%), Compagnie Française des Petroles (4%) and Partex (2%). These shareholdings have remained unchanged to the present day. The company, however, underwent a change six years later. On 15 May 1980, it was registered by Royal Decree as a limited liability company under the name Petroleum Development Oman — now without parentheses in its name. Its current nautilus logo was also introduced then. Growth (1979–1994) In the early 1980s production rose to new heights. By the end of 1984 average daily production had risen to and reserves stood at . Meanwhile, the company had become involved in setting up the Government Gas System, to provide natural gas from the interior to industry on the coast. Then, in 1986, the oil price collapsed. PDO was required to cut costs while increasing production and maintaining reserves. The Company turned its focus on innovation and experimentation. Technological leaps in processing the huge volumes of data acquired in three-dimensional seismic surveys helped PDO to explore with great success during this period. Horizontal wells, which made their debut in 1986, yielded between two and four times the production from any one given well. (They have since become the norm in PDO.) Maturity (1994–2002) By the end of 2000 PDO witnessed an increase in production. This was due to the increase in production arose from the application of the latest technology to increase oil recovery in existing fields. And some of the production increase over the years was made up of "new oil" from fields that were not only found but also developed at an ever-accelerating pace. During the period 1967–1980 all of PDO's production came from 11 fields; by 1988, 50 fields provided the sum total of PDO's oil output; by 1990 it was 60, and in 1999 it was nearly 100. When PDO's gas-exploration campaign in the early 1990s made it clear how bountiful the country's gas fields were, the Government decided to establish a completely new industry: the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). In 1996 PDO concluded an agreement with the Government to develop the central Oman gas fields in order to supply gas to an