There were continuing industry worries about the uncertainties regarding the development timetables for the Pohokura gas field and, to a lesser extent, the more southern offshore Taranaki Kupe field, he told EnergyReview.Net in New Plymouth today.
Even without methanol manufacturer Methanex and its 90 Petajoules a year usage, New Zealand would need both Pohokura and Kupe to be developed within the next few years to allow additional gas-fired power stations to be approved and built.
"In the national interest it's important to advance Pohokura as quickly as possible and look at appropriate terms and conditions later," Barrett told ERN. "Pohokura is so important to the energy equation, energy balance of this country,"
"We accept the need for a significant increase in the price of future gas, but we also certainly believe we can secure some Pohokura gas, if pricing and terms are appropriate."
Last month Contact Energy told the Commerce Commission it believed separate marketing was quite possible and feasible, though it conceded the principal benefit of joint marketing - as wanted by Pohokura partners Shell, Todd and OMV - would be the avoidance of delays.
Contact's fuels trading manager David Thomas suggested to the commission an aggressive deadline of December 1 this year should be imposed for the signing of contracts for the first tranche of gas from Pohokura. Once gas supply contracts had been entered into, that should be sufficient incentive for the partners to proceed promptly with field development.
Contact also believed on-sell provisions should be critical to gas supply contracts, providing some check on the Pohokura partners' market power and providing some flexibility from high fixed prices or quantities.
Today Barrett said he was pleased progress was being made on the new production and delivery profiles for the remaining Maui gas, which were necessary because of the Independent Expert's redetermination of remaining recoverable reserves.
Contact had sold a very modest amount of Maui B sands gas to Methanex earlier this year, but was very aware of its remaining entitlements. Contact had used all its pre-paid Maui gas - "which is a good position to be in" - but was also supplementing Maui gas with Tawn gas from Swift Energy, and Kaimiro and Ngatoro gas from Greymouth Petroleum. This was primarily for use in Contact's New Plymouth or TCC power stations.
However, Contact's already postponed Otahuhu, Auckland, combined-cycle project would remain deferred for several years until there was greater certainty and conditions regarding future gas supplies.
