Contact chairman Phil Pryke and managing director Steve Barrett, in the company's annual report released today, said there needed to be more urgency and focus developing major new gas resources as New Zealand entered its post-Maui age.
They said there was far too little of that urgency or focus presently going into the commercial development of the only two major known new gas reserves - the marginal Kupe field and the possibly massive Pohokura find. "We urge the gas industry and government to give this issue the priority it deserves," exhorted the men.
They said total electricity demand would soon approach total generating output, so significant investment in new generating capacity was becoming urgent and without major new gas discoveries, New Zealand's new energy sources were likely to come from a mix of renewable, geothermal, coal or even imported diesel or LNG.
Industry commentators say this raises two issues, whether the "free market" should continue to be responsible for energy policy, including petroleum resources, or whether there should be more of a centralised governmental approach.
New Zealand has not had any effective centralised energy planning since "Think Big" energy minister Bill Birch delivered his 1984 Energy Plan to Parliament.
Subsequently there was never any need to think strategically, as the end of Maui - this country's largest single energy resource - was always over the planning horizon. This was until last November when field owner Maui Development Ltd said it believed Maui would run out 2.3 years earlier than the forecast 2009.
Last week the Petroleum Exploration Association of New Zealand applauded Westech Energy's Surrey and Indo-Pacific's Kahili hydrocarbon discoveries in onshore Taranaki ; with executive director Mike Patrick saying "every bit counts", though these finds were likely to be just a fraction of the size of Maui.
The discoveries showed there were still surprises waiting to be found in the Taranaki Basin, which should remain a substantial petroleum producer, with its existing extensive infrastructure, for the foreseeable future.
This week, however, commentators say such small finds will not prevent the power shortages likely from later this decade. Such fields might produce 1-2 Petajoules of gas a year, but new thermal power stations would need 20PJ or so annually for at least a decade or so to be economic. "That's seven Rimu fields for just one new station," said one commentator, referring to Swift Energy's Rimu oil field in onshore south Taranaki.
There was absolutely no guarantee that number of new fields would be found and developed in time.
New Zealand's greatest hope for significant new hydrocarbon discoveries lay in the new offshore Taranaki acreage and the yet-to-be awarded deepwater blocks, with which only the major and medium-sized companies could afford to be involved.
But to attract sufficient serious interest, New Zealand might need to consider further incentives such as tax holidays, graduated royalty or tax regimes, or even using energy levies to fuel further exploration efforts.
