Government is pathetic on gassing

Over the last three years, our current incompetent government has been running New Zealand into an artificial recession. But they keep blaming the previous government, especially on the oil and gas exploration ban. So over three years how have they done to realise active exploration? Not much. So we now have a typical Shane Jones blowhard face saving announcement. Typically squandering taxpayers money again.

There are as far I am aware no active exploration programs actually planned in the near future for new fields outside of the Taranaki onshore and offshore structure. The only one there that appears to be active is the Enzed.

This isn’t a good look for a government that is was so determined to revive the oil and gas industry in NZ – the industry that hasn’t managed to find a significiant new source in more than 20 years.

So today they announced a mapping project in Taranaki and a loan equity program specifically to assist what appears to be the solitary active prospect. There are currently 31 active petroleum exploration permits, all except one appear to be from prior to stopping the issuing of new permits.

The mapping project is worth while. Even if we never burn more gas, just knowing where the chemical feed stock prospects are is an investment into our future. However the support for the Kaheru prospect looks more like a face-saving gesture by Shane Jones, our most notable blowhard politician.

$14.5 million to contract Schlumberger New Zealand (SLB) to create the first basin-scale offshore pseudo 3D dataset using state-of-the-art seismic technology – with free access for industry for two years to incentivise companies to explore in New Zealand.
…
The Schlumberger project will bring together existing public and private datasets, alongside proprietary seismic technology that improves access to and understanding of the underground geology in the Taranaki, East Coast, and Great South basins.
“The value of this project is that it transforms a huge amount of fragmented subsurface exploration information into a single, basin-scale, AI-enabled exploration product delivered in industry-standard format,” Mr Jones says.
“This is easier to access and interpret, making it more useful for industry. It will be very attractive to international exploration companies deciding where to put their money and effort.”
The datasets will be available free of charge to potential explorers for two years, reducing costs and improving access to key information for the sector.

The EnZed Energy project will explore the promising Kaheru prospect off Taranaki to determine whether commercially recoverable gas is present.
“This project could identify a significant new source of domestic gas supply to help meet our nation’s energy needs in the coming years. It targets an estimated 182 petajoules of additional gas reserve in the Kaheru permit. That’s equivalent to nearly 25 percent of New Zealand’s January 2026 proven and probable gas reserves,” Mr Jones says.

Politik newsletter 2026-09-25

The EnZed project appears to represent this governments only ‘success’, that I know of, about in reviving the oil and gas exploration. It appears to be at a stage where it is just trying to attract investors to get involved in investigating a small field – estimated at 182 petajoules (PJ). In other words, it is marketing to investors to actually do the actual drilling to prove this smallish field.

For comparison the last substantive field discovered was the Taranaki onshore field Tūrangi in 2005. That field is estimated to have 380PJ remaining in a total proven and probable total NZ reserves of 731PJ at the end of 2025.

New Zealand used about 105PJ of gas in 2025. By sector it is roughly 35-39% is large industrial as high temperature or feed-stock (mostly Methanex which uses most of that sector), 29% for generating electricity, 7% for commercial, and 10% for residential and other (schools, hospitals, etc). The electricity consumption varies a lot depending on what the renewable provides.

So 182 PJ is a drop in the bucket when you consider that it is highly unlikely to start producing in quantity in less than a decade – if everything worked perfectly. Perhaps that may happen if Shane Jones isn’t around. But it still won’t be enough to be particularly useful.

Of far more relevance, Methanex will stop its consumption in the first quarter of 2027. It has been using 37-40% and up to 50% at times of our gas production. It also has barely paid any tax in NZ for long periods of time, instead exporting profits to its parent company, including its massive ETS rebates.

So Shane Jones and this government in this term have now made a largely meaningless gesture towards their commitment to their probably futile oil and gas exploration election pledge. In typical Shane Jones blowhard style by effectively subsidising a another private company with a taxpayer provided subsidy. Probably with the usual result of Jones picking winners – another auditor-general report looking at wasted taxpayer resources.

They have failed to get any interest in fields outside of the Taranaki structures, and not anything vary substantive much in Taranaki. Which was the main reason that the previous government stopped concentrating on trying to find more gas, and instead started investing in weaning the country off that wasteful addiction.

A better use of that money and the other money being thrown at oil and gas exploration and subsidies would have been to increase the overall capacity of renewable electricity generation and transfer, especially base load geothermal, offshore wind and wind grid connections, electricity buffering in batteries of various types, and a residential solar.

That would give more time for current industrial, commercial, residential, and other gas users to change their equipment on our remaining gas reserves.

The geological databases will prove useful in the long term. Even small pockets would be useful if we use them to foster local specialist industries.

But I suspect that the days of finding surprisingly large gas fields in New Zealand is over. It was close to a miracle that we found any large gas fields in the first place given our geology, and the way it has been squandered over my lifetime is a tragedy. I was born in 1959, the same year as Kapuni field was discovered. It was one of the reasons that my first degree was in Earth Sciences.