The bids, from explorers around the world, underline Taranaki's growing popularity as an exploration destination. Potential explorers have submitted five-year work programmes worth a total of over $NZ540 million.
"I am extremely pleased there has been such strong competition for most blocks. This is a reflection of the keen interest there is in New Zealand as a place to explore for oil and gas," said associate energy minister Paul Swain today in Wellington when announcing the results of the blocks offer, which closed on Tuesday.
Swain said the strong and competitive interest shown from petroleum explorers in the new blocks, in the onshore and near-shore Taranaki Basin, augured well for the future of the industry over the next five years.
New Zealand was recently ranked as the 17th most attractive country in the world for petroleum exploration investment by the IHS Energy Group's international survey - the highest ranking it had ever achieved.
The bidding round included 20 blocks in onshore Taranaki covering a total area of 1528 sq km. These onshore blocks were close to the commercial Kapuni, McKee, Tarkio-Ahuroa-Waihapa-Ngaere Tawn), Ngatoro and Ramiro fields, as well as the more southern recent oil discoveries at Rimu and Kauri.
There were six offshore blocks covering 6700 sq km on the near-shore continental shelf, including areas near the Pohokura and Maui fields and areas along the edge of the shelf. The adjacent Deepwater Taranaki Basin area will be put up for another bidding round later in 2002.
Mr Swain said he looked forward to announcing the successful applicants for the current bidding round in approximately two months.
Crown Minerals petroleum unit manager Clyde Bennett said this Taranaki blocks offer had proved more popular than any he had known. "This has been a much more heavily and competitively bid process than before," said Bennett from Wellington.
The last roughly comparable blocks offer had been in 1995, which involved 13 Taranaki areas, and two each for offshore Canterbury and the West Coast, South Island. The successful work programme bids then totalled $NZ170 million.
Bennett said United States, Canadian, British and European firms had submitted work programmes, along with their Australian and New Zealand counterparts.
He declined to name any of the bidders, or whether there were any majors or new players among them.
However, it is believed that Shell and long-time exploration partner Todd Energy have bid for some offshore acreage, probably around the Pohokura field and the three blocks comprising the former Spectrum Exploration permit.
It is unlikely Shell is interested in any onshore acreage, however, preferring to leave those blocks to the smaller independent companies, such as existing players Swift Energy, Preussag Energie, New Zealand Oil and Gas, Indo-Pacific, Bligh Oil and Minerals and the like.
Relative newcomer Greymouth Petroleum, which earlier this year bought all of the Kaimiro gas-condensate field and 60% of the Ngatoro field from Shell New Zealand, and Westech Energy, are others which should have submitted bids for onshore blocks.
"The times when New Zealand was regarded as something of a rural exploration backwater are now well and truly behind us," said Bennett.
Crown Minerals had also made some concessions to industry calls - made at the 2002 New Zealand Petroleum Conference held at Auckland in February - for more flexible timeframes for exploration deadlines.
Bennett said the successful bidders for the new Taranaki blocks would not have to "drill or drop" until the fourth year of their work programme. Wells usually have to be drilled within three years of being awarded permits.
