New Zealand's petroleum industry was portrayed in a positive light as the 11th biennial Petroleum Conference began in Auckland yesterday.
To a backdrop of record oil prices, near $US106 ($NZ132.50) a barrel, the optimistic mood was underpinned by GNS Science claiming the multitude of deep-water basins surrounding New Zealand may conservatively contain up to 17 million barrels of oil, effectively the Southern Hemisphere's North Sea, GNS geophysicist Chris Uruski told the conference.
However, such news was tempered by calls for the Government to come up with strategies to encourage the sector further.
With the Tui offshore field producing more than 9 million barrels of oil since July, near completion of the first seismic data studies by majors in the Great South Basin, and the likelihood of a tender round for a new frontier Raukumara basin off the North Island's East Cape going ahead this year, Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven had every right to be upbeat.
Addressing the nearly 500 delegates at the opening of the three-day conference, Mr Duynhoven highlighted the significant contribution of the sector to the economy, particularly the production from Tui, Maari, Kupe and Pohukura fields, since the decline in production following Maui's peak in 1997.
‘‘These projects will reach peak production by about 2010 and bring 140 million barrels of new reserves into the market. New Zealand's total oil production will then be at a record level not seen since the heady days of Maui,'' Mr Duynhoven said.
Collectively, the major projects would help address the country's overall requirement for domestic security of oil supply, address its balance of payments issue and contribute to short and medium-term gas supplies.
Mr Duynhoven singled out Australian Worldwide Exploration for praise for its Tui field, which took just three years from the field's discovery to begin production.
‘‘It's quite remarkable and surely a feat that highlights that petroleum discovered in New Zealand can be commercialised in a very short period of time.''
Calling the Great South Basin an exploration hot spot, Mr Duynhoven was optimistic that majors ExxonMobil and OMV New Zealand had respectively completed 80% and 60% of their first separate seismic data programmes, part of up to $US1.2 billion expected to be spent in southern exploration during the next five years.
Executive director of the Centre for Advanced Engineering, Dr George Hooper, said the demise of Maui had woken the industry up to considering where gas exploration was headed.
The Government had to look at strategies, including incentive developments and also research and development, noting the future domestic inventory for energy was not renewable energy but based largely on oil and gas, he said
- Simon Hartley attended the conference courtesy of Crown Minerals.
