Saturday’s general election saw Labour having only a one-seat lead over arch rival National, although the two main parties together gained more than 80% of the party vote.

Labour, the party most likely to lead a minority government, would probably need the support of at least three of the minor parties to successfully govern.

NZ prime minister Helen Clarke is negotiating with two parties to Labour's left - the Greens and the Maori Party - as well as two centrist parties.

The Green Party presently have just over 5% of the national vote and are likely to be seeking Cabinet representation as part of any coalition deal.

Sensing that this might be the last Labour-led government for a while, the Greens may also be more strident in their demands for working with Labour.

But with Labour talking to four parties and needing the support of only three, the Greens cannot overplay their hand.

The two centrist minor parties, New Zealand First and United Future, have said they would be unlikely to support a Labour-Green coalition that gave Greens cabinet posts.

Labour need the centrist parties supoport more than it needs the Greens as the centrist parties could opt to support the country's main conservative party, the Nationals, whereas the Greens have nowhere else to go.

Energy executives have said they hope the Greens will not stifle further initiatives to accelerate the country’s desperate hunt for hydrocarbons, particularly gas.

Other industry bosses, including Business Roundtable chief executive Roger Kerr, have also said they’d be worried about any more Green influence.

Kerr said he would be "very concerned" about a stronger Green influence in areas such as energy and transport.

Mighty River Power upstream ventures manager John Bay said that while moves to more renewable energy were laudable, the Green Party’s inflexible stance on indigenous fossil fuels was unbalanced.

New Zealand desperately needs to find more gas for existing industry, particularly the electricity generators.

“We will still need gas for electricity generation on the days when the wind doesn’t blow, the sun doesn’t shine, and when hydro lake levels are getting low,” Bay said.

With world oil prices still above US$60 per barrel, further oil discoveries were also needed to help improve the country's rapidly deteriorating balance of payments position. New Zealand’s oil imports bill this year is expected to top NZ$4 billion.

Petroleum Exploration and Production Association executive officer Mike Patrick said he shared those concerns but did not believe the Greens, who saw gas as a vital transition fuel to renewables, would be unreasonable.

“I understand that Labour will want to hang on to the energy portfolio, which they see as extremely significant,” Patrick told EnergyReview.net.

Earlier this month Mallard told the 2005 Gas Industry Reform Conference that his Labour-led government already acknowledged gas had a vital role to play in New Zealand as it would be a driver for economic growth as it was in many overseas countries.

The Greens – headed by co-leaders Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod McDonald – place a high priority on decreasing the use of fossil fuels while increasing renewable energy sources.

They have already urged New Zealanders to face up to world climate change, prepare for the end of cheap oil and use the sun to save the earth.

They endorse New Zealand being part of the Kyoto Protocol and introducing a carbon tax, of NZ$15 per tonne of emissions from April 2007. They want to ban any new use of coal for energy, cap carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation, and invest in rail, not road, public transport and biofuels.

They also want to get 500,000 solar hot water panels onto homes over five years and encourage more wind farms, biomass, wave, current and tidal energy projects.

The Greens also want the Electricity Commission turned into a Sustainable Energy Commission, and to ensure that alternatives to new electricity transmission lines are fully investigated so that people can sell home-generated power to the national grid.