Auckland-headquartered Greymouth yesterday afternoon announced it had reached agreement to acquire the 13MW Windimurra power station and all associated gas delivery assets for an undisclosed sum.
The power station was being shipped to New Zealand and was expected to be operational by late 2006.
Greymouth chief executive Mark Dunphy said New Zealand needed more gas-fired power generating facilities required to sustain economic growth during periods of low hydro-lake levels and low renewable energy supply.
“Greymouth is embarking on a step-wise investment program in New Zealand power generating facilities to meet the anticipated growth in this sector, in a way that limits strain on the existing delivery infrastructure,” Dunphy said.
The thermal power investment programme would be fuelled by and integrated with Greymouth’s new Taranaki gas field developments and would make full use of the Maui pipeline open access network, he said.
Greymouth owns and operates the commercial Kaimiro and Ngatoro fields in north Taranaki, as well as the small Moturoa oil field in New Plymouth.
The Windimurra power station was constructed and commissioned in 1999 by the Greenstone Power Station joint venture for the supply of electricity to the Windimurra Vanadium Project. But project operations were suspended in April, 2003, and the mine later closed.
“We are delighted with this initiative which enables Greymouth to become an integrated low-cost New Zealand energy provider.”
Dunphy said recent government initiatives had made it possible for companies like Greymouth to participate in the power supply market alongside established integrated companies like Todd Energy and Contact Energy.
Greymouth was interested in the possibility that a market for the future supply of electricity at fixed prices might develop. Greymouth planned to offer fixed-price electricity and gas to consumer markets, and would be developing ventures with industry to achieve that, he said.
Dunphy declined to say where the station might be located, but as the station is made up of four 3,245 kW units, each unit could be located at a different place.
Auckland or Northland industrial companies that already have approval for on-site power equipment are believed to be likely customers.
Meanwhile, Greymouth has applied to Crown Minerals for a petroleum mining permit over nearly all their onshore licence PEP 38762, where they drilled, completed and cased the Turangi-1 well earlier this year.
Greymouth has not tested Turangi-1 – which targeted the Eocene-aged Mangahewa sands and possibly the deeper Kaimiro formation down to a target depth of about 4500m. But PEP 38762 lies between the near-shore Pohokura gas-condensate field and the onshore Mangahewa deep gas and McKee oil fields, and lies along the same inversion trend as these.
PEP 38762 also contains the bitterly disputed Ohanga well site. The surface location of Ohanga-2 is in the Greymouth permit, but the bottom-hole location is believed to be in the Todd Energy-owned Mangahewa mining licence PMP 38150.
