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The Wellington-based Waitangi Tribunal is expected to tomorrow publicly release its report on a four-year-old claim by Taranaki's Nga Hapu o Nga Ruahine that oil and gas are taonga (treasures).
However, Prime Minister Helen Clark has already moved to quell unease about the tribunal's findings, which are expected to support the Nga Ruahine claims, by saying petroleum reserves are not up for negotiation.
Petroleum Association of New Zealand executive director Mike Patrick told EnergyReview.Net today that the matter was between the government and Maori and should not affect petroleum explorers or producers. "The Prime Minister has been pretty blunt on that.
"Even if the government accepted the tribunals' recommendations, which it is not obliged to do, and decided oil and gas were taonga, this association would be arguing for the status quo to remain and that there be no hike in royalty rates to compensate Maori.
"But we do not see that happening," he said from Wellington.
Patrick said all Maori claims to oil and gas fields could be huge, on a similar scale to their historic multi-million-dollar fisheries settlement. Last year the government received about $NZ136 million in petroleum royalties and levies.
The Nga Ruahine claim argues that the 1937 nationalisation of oil and gas reserves under Maori land was a breach of the treaty.
Tribunal Chief Judge Joseph Williams wrote to the government last week saying that where Maori property rights to petroleum were extinguished, it was done so in a manner inconsistent with the principles of the treaty. The government should address those breaches before taking significant steps with regard to its petroleum interests.
Government plans to sell its 11% stake in the Kupe gas field off south Taranaki to Genesis Power are believed to be threatened by the claim.
However, Clark believes nothing has changed since 2000 when the government rejected any suggestion that the treaty had been breached in 1937, saying the nationalisation of oil and gas reserves took place in the public interest.
