Yesterday company retail general manager Vince Hawksworth said Genesis now had enough gas to substantially increase its residential customer base.

While the perception might be that New Zealand was running out of gas, there were still ample supplies true for domestic users, according to Hawksworth.

“We’re saying very clearly that we have loads of gas for home use and this will continue to be the case for a long time to come,” he said.

Only 4% of New Zealand’s natural gas was used by residential and commercial customers.

Hawksworth said piping gas to homes for water heating, room heating and cooking was more efficient than using gas-generated electricity to heat water and homes.

Last May Genesis won the rights to gas from the Todd Energy-owned McKee and Mangahewa fields in onshore Taranaki, as well as contracts for substantial quantities of Pohokura and Kupe gas when those fields come onstream in 2006 and 2007 respectively, said public affairs manager Richard Gordon.

“We are now in a position to go to the market and have the potential to grow our customer base substantially. The company has 116,000 gas customers and we would like to double that,” Gordon told EnergyReview.net.

Genesis Energy also has deep gas rights for gas produced from the Cardiff prospect in onshore Taranaki. Long-term production testing is due to start shortly on several zones in the Cardiff-2B well. Cardiff and Kupe should ensure commercial, industrial and residential customers had plentiful gas for years to come, Genesis said.