The government-owned company is advertising for a liquefied natural gas project manager, upstream fuels manager, senior fuels analyst and upstream fuels analyst.
“This is a significant expansion, building a new team,” public affairs manager Richard Gordon told PetroleumNews.net.
“This development team will be charged with the task of sourcing new fuels to enable us to maintain and grow our gas-fired, generation portfolio in order to meet our strategic goals.”
Gordon said Genesis had become active in developing and producing of new fuel supplies for its electricity generation and retail portfolio.
It already operated the 1000MW dual-fuelled (gas or coal) Huntly power station and had nearly finished building the adjacent 385MW combined-cycle, gas-fired station known as e3p (Energy Efficiency Enhancement Project).
It had also recently called for tenders for its proposed 240-360MW combined-cycle, gas-fired power station at Rodney, north of Auckland, which it hoped to have operating by the summer of 2008-09.
Gordon said that Genesis had “plenty” of short-term gas, with contracts for Mangahewa, Pohokura, and some Maui gas through Vector subsidiary NGC.
It was also a 31% partner in the $NZ980 million offshore Taranaki Kupe gas-condensate project and held rights to nearly all the gas from the central field area that has P50 reserves of 254 petajoules.
The company also holds a 40% stake in the troubled onshore Taranaki Cardiff gas-condensate field that is still being evaluated for optimal flow methods and confirmation as a commercial concern.
"However, post-2014, things look tight for us, so we will certainly be looking for more assured supplies if we are to have the Rodney station commissioned in 2008 or 2009,” Gordon said, referring to the $NZ500 million gas-fired station north of Auckland.
“Our preference will always be domestic gas but we have to continue to investigate LNG, together with Contact Energy, as a backstop measure.
“Our LNG project manager will work with the Contact equivalent, Frank Geogehegan, progressing this backstop measure should domestic exploration fail to find sufficient indigenous gas later this decade.”
Last month, Genesis and Contact chose Port Taranaki as the preferred site for a possible $NZ500 million LNG berthing, storage and regasification facility.
The country’s two largest gas users would most likely use about 50-60PJ per annum of LNG, or just under half the country’s annual gas usage, in their gas-fired stations in Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland.
Genesis – one of the first New Zealand downstream electricity and companies to move upstream – was still looking for more upstream opportunities.
“There could be more deals done yet,” he told PNN, though he declined to comment further.
