Crown Minerals spokesman Mike West told PetroleumNew.net that officials now believed it was appropriate to open up vacant offshore Taranaki acreage to PIT applications.
Under the PIT rules, explorers can apply for permits at any time – they do not have to wait for blocks offers to submit bids for open acreage.
“Recent history with both the Outer Taranaki and East Coast Blocks offers has shown that the PIT process can be an effective way to allocate following a blocks offer,” he said from Wellington.
The last Outer Taranaki blocks offer attracted no bids, though Denver-based Global Resource Holdings later made a PIT application for virtually all the acreage on offer and, in August, the Government awarded it the first outer Taranaki licence, PEP 38451, covering 55,800 square kilometres.
In July, Energy Minister David Parker gave notice that the Offshore Taranaki Basin was closed to PIT applications but recently said that notice was to be rescinded, effective from December 4, meaning unallocated offshore Taranaki would again be open acreage.
Asked why vacant acreage in onshore Taranaki was not also being offered for PIT applications, West said the current Crown Minerals Program for Petroleum specified all onshore and near-shore Taranaki acreage had to be allocated by blocks offers, not by the PIT process.
But the Ministry of Economic Development unit was considering options for a blocks offer in onshore and near-shore Taranaki in the near future.
“Timings are yet to be confirmed but officials are obviously keen to make this acreage available to prospective bidders via a blocks offer as soon as possible,” he added.
The offshore Taranaki areas now open to PIT applications include acreage almost surrounding the commercial Maui and Kupe fields, but excluding that immediately to the east, and one area immediately off Awakino, adjacent to and immediately north of the New Zealand Oil & Gas-operated licence PEP 38729.
Only three of the nine blocks of the last offshore Taranaki blocks offer were awarded in July.
PEP 38772, a 3775sq.km area adjacent to the Wanganui coast was awarded to new, privately held company, Auckland-headquartered Hugh Green Energy.
PEP 38773, a 50sq.km coastal block off New Plymouth, was awarded to Greymouth Petroleum, which operates the Turangi, Ngatoro, Kaimiro and Goldie fields in onshore Taranaki.
PEP 38774, a 297sq.km block about 40km north of the offshore Pohokura permit, was awarded to Highland Exploration, a Colorado-based company affiliated to Bridge Exploration, which Denver businessman Ed Davies and Auckland businessman Kevin Johnson established in 2002.
