The PEP 38459 partners - Shell New Zealand, Todd Energy and Preussag Energie - believe access to the onshore Maui pipeline, which runs from Oaonui to Rotowaro near Huntly, is essential for the $NZ500-700 million Pohokura project to proceed.
Earlier this week Dr Taylor, who is also Shell Petroleum Mining managing director, said the Pohokura development needed certainty of gas contracts and the ability of transporting gas from the1tcf-plus field to buyers.
The Pohokura project did not warrant the construction of a new pipeline from Taranaki to Auckland so access to the Maui pipeline was considered essential.
Last week Dr Taylor announced a downgrading of remaining Maui gas reserves, from the original 4085PJ of gas to only 3800PJ. This meant the economic life of the field, which supplies about 80% of this country's gas needs, would end by mid-2007 and not mid-2009.
That downgrade highlighted the urgency of completing the Pohokura project before Maui began to falter and gaining access to the Maui onshore pipeline.
Although MDL owned the pipeline, the contract was administered by Maui Contract Management Ltd on behalf of the Crown, through Treasury, Dr Taylor added.
The Maui contract specifies that only Maui gas is to be delivered through the Maui pipeline and no other gas can be put into the pipeline until the contract terminates - in 2009 or earlier.
The terms of the contract require all parties to agree to any changes. This means not only Shell, Todd and the soon-to-be-announced new 10% partner in Maui, but also Contact Energy (which has entitlements to about 40% of Maui gas), Methanex Corporation, Natural Gas Corporation and the Crown (through Treasury).
Industry commentators say third-party access may be a complex matter to resolve, with the different parties having different priorities. Methanex may want Pohokura gas for itself, with little transported north, while NGC may want some Pohokura gas for its existing and planned gas-fired stations at Stratford, and also might not want transportation in the Maui pipeline competing with its own pipeline network.
"There is definitely no guarantee that the Pohokura partners will be able to access the Maui pipeline before the end of the Maui contract," said one commentator.
Dr Taylor said the New Zealand energy industry was rapidly moving from being dominated by Maui to a far more dynamic and flexible one, where different joint ventures operated different fields, using the existing infrastructure, but with such things as third-party provisions.
