Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven has closed the offshore Taranaki Basin – from Kawhia in the north to Cape Farewell at the tip of the South Island - to Priority in Time (PIT) petroleum permit applications until further notice.

PIT applications allow explorers to bid at any time for unallocated acreage or acreage that becomes available through a permit being revoked, surrendered or otherwise terminated.

Duynhoven said this latest PIT restriction also applied to applications filed before December 20, which were subsequently withdrawn or declined.

Last month Crown Minerals gave indicative dates for seven proposed blocks offers - including an offshore Taranaki one that is scheduled to open during the third quarter of 2008 – and earlier this month it opened the onshore Taranaki blocks offer, the first in over four years.

Early this year the Ministry of Economic Development unit said it was progressively making some of New Zealand's best vacant petroleum exploration acreage unavailable for PIT applications and holding that acreage for future blocks offers.

Last year it closed all of offshore Northland, then offshore East Cape, and parts of onshore Taranaki as industry players surrendered permits.

Former group manager Adam Feeley said Crown Minerals was withholding acreage from PIT applications because it preferred to encourage exploration "in an orderly" way, rather than “a free-for-all”.

Players to have snapped up vacant offshore Taranaki acreage recently by using PIT applications include Tui Area project operator Australian Worldwide Exploration and Maari oil field operator Austrian firm OMV. Others have included the Maui partners, Shell, Todd Energy and OMV.