Contact Energy yesterday afternoon said a recent reassessment by the Maui partners – Shell NZ, Todd Energy and Austrian firm OMV – had seen 60.8 petajoules of remaining gas moved from P50 to P85 status.

This amount of ROFR gas would now be offered to Contact and Vector subsidiary NGC, with Contact having the rights to 61.63% and NGC the rest.

Vector said it was now entitled to an additional 23.3PJ of contracted gas, 15.3PJ becoming available from 2011, and 8PJ from 2012.

ROFR gas deliveries started last month and the agreements provide for reserves to be reviewed annually and converted to contracted gas as they are confirmed as P85 reserves.

While the total amount of potential ROFR gas remains at 275PJ, available through to 2014, industry sources say this move from P50 to P85, plus likely future moves, all add to certainty of gas supply – not only to Contact and NGC but also to Methanex.

Both Contact and NGC can on-sell ROFR gas that is surplus to their requirements and high world methanol prices, currently about $US320 per tonne in the Asia-Pacific region, are enabling Methanex to pay the higher market-priced ROFR gas while still running the Waitara Valley plant near New Plymouth profitably.

In January, Methanex New Zealand managing director Harvey Weake said the short-term New Zealand gas market was looking good enough to keep the valley plant operating at full capacity for at least 2007, using about 20PJ of gas to produce about 520,000 tonnes of methanol.