GNS senior hydrocarbons scientist Richard Sykes told the 2007 Gas Summit in Wellington this week that such a research centre would help address New Zealand’s extreme exposure to high-priced oil imports.

“New Zealand does not need to be in such a precarious position,” he said.

“We have the fifth largest exclusive economic zone in the world and huge potential oil and gas resources that needed to be explored.”

Projects such as the Tui Area and Maari oil developments and the Pohokura and Kupe condensate fields would be helpful, but the country needed many more such developments or some larger discoveries, if it was to be self-sufficient in petroleum liquids.

For now, New Zealand exploration and production still lacked critical mass, he said.

Crown Minerals’ $21 million spent on geotechnical data collection had already paid dividends with ventures preparing to spend more than $NZ1 billion on Great South Basin exploration over the next few years, Sykes said.

“Free access to government geoscience data and research does make a difference,” he said.

Sykes said that establishing a New Zealand Petroleum Resource Centre (PRC) would continue that momentum.

GNS had spoken with Crown Minerals and major downstream gas users in New Zealand about funding the establishment of the unincorporated PRC.

Possible funding avenues included diverting the energy resources levy, using royalties or even introducing another levy, Sykes said.

“The PRC would be a cost-effective and low-risk means of increasing the likelihood of making more domestic discoveries,” he said.

Sykes hoped to have PRC funding finalised by next July, with the organisation operating within three or four years.

“The PRC should, if successful, fill the looming gas gap, from about 2015, but we do not have much time,” he said.