Heather du Plessis-Allan: Our gas is running out faster than we ever thought it would

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous about whether we are ever going to be able to attract overseas investors back into our oil and gas industry.

I mean, you think about it - the world has known since October last year that we were back open for business, because that’s when the coalition Government won the election.

From there, it was clear that all three parties wanted to reverse the oil and gas ban. Since October, the world knew things were going to change in New Zealand.

But from what I can tell, no one is interested in coming here to do the work. And frankly, if no one has registered an interest in 9 months, I think we might need to start getting realistic about this.

It's probably over, the ship has sailed.

You can sort of tell by the language that Shane Jones is using that he might know this too - he's talking about trying to make it more appealing for investors to come back by giving them really long-term contracts.

It's almost desperate stuff, and I suspect it's because he can see no one’s nibbling after nine months.

And why would they?

Labour has already raised the prospect that they are open to nixing projects again once they get back in. Investors around the world will see that - and who wants to put billions of dollars of investment in to have Labour come and ban your business again?

So what this means is that, short of a miracle and some overseas investor taking a punt on us, we are probably gonna have make do with what we’ve got. And that’s not a good prospect.

Our gas is running out faster than we thought it would, we’re facing lights out this winter because of a gas shortage. We have been warned about this.

It seems to me - and I'm sorry to say this - that Huntly is going to be a very busy girl burning that coal for a long time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just go back to the oil and gas stuff that
we're talking about at the start of the show. I'm
starting to get a little nervous about whether we're ever
really going to be able to attract overseas investors back
into our oil and gas industry. When you think about it, right,
the world has known since October last year that New
Zealand was back open for business, because that is when
the coalition government won the election, and the coalition government
had made it very clear that when they got in

(00:22):
I think all three of the parties had made it
clear that they would reverse the oil and gas ban.
So since October the world new right. Things are going
to change in New Zealand. But from what I can tell,
no one from overseas is interested in coming to New
Zealand to do the work. And frankly, if no one's
registered an interest in nine months, I think we might
need to start getting realistic about this. It's probably over.

(00:42):
That ship has sailed. You can sort of tell also
by the language that Shane Jones is using that he
might know this too, because he's talking about all of
these efforts that he's making to try to make it
more appealing for investors to come back. It's talked about bonds.
Now he's talking about trying to give them really, really
long contracts. It's almost desperate stuff because I think that
he can already seeine months. No one's nibbling, and why
would they nibble. I mean Labour has already now on

(01:04):
multiple occasions, raised the prospect that they are open to
when they get back in nixing the projects all over again. Now,
investors around the world are going to read that right.
They're going to read that on one hand, the current
government is reversing the oil and gas band, but on
the other hand, the next government is going to just
put it back in place again. Who wants to put
billions of dollars of investment in and then have Rachel
Brooking from Labor or Michael Woods from Megan Woods from

(01:26):
Labour coming and ban your business all over again. I
mean what that means for us, like you know, in
the real world, let's think about that. That means for
us is that short of a miracle and short of
some overseas investor taking a punt on us, we are
probably going to have to make do with what we've got. Now,
that is not a good prospect because our gas is
running out faster than we thought it would. We are

(01:47):
facing lights out this winter because of a gas shortage.
We have been warned that. It seems to me, and
I'm sorry to say this because it's not great for
the environment, but it seems to me Huntley is going
to be a very busy girl burning all of that
coal for a very long time. For more from Hither
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