Some of the numbers presented in this website may not be the most recent available
globalshift.co.uk - copyright © 2009 to 2025; All rights reserved
MT TARANAKI
Overlooks the Basin
Brief history of the country
New Zealand (Aotearoa) comprises North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and South Island (Te Waipounamu) plus many smaller islands, lying in the Pacific Ocean, 1,500 kms east of Australia across the Tasman Sea.
New Zealand was one of the last regions to be settled when Polynesians arrived around 1250 AD developing a Maori culture with tribes fighting for land and resources. Abel Tasman visited in 1642 but Europeans did not return until 1769 when James Cook mapped the coast.
In 1788 the British colony of New South Wales included New Zealand in its remit and Europeans began to trade with the Maoris. The introduction of guns led to tribal wars from 1801, missionaries began to settle, and the Maori population declined by 60%, mostly due to disease.
A British Resident was appointed in 1832 and in 1835 the Maoris asked for protection from France prompting the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. New Zealand became a separate UK Colony in 1841, self-governing in 1856 and, after an influx of immigrants from the UK, a socially advanced country.
In 1907 it was proclaimed a dominion within the British Empire. New Zealanders fought in both World Wars and in 1947 gained full independence. It is now a stable, developed country with a market economy. Maoris still claim tribal lands.
Oil and gas summary
New Zealand is long and narrow with a maximum width of 400 kms. Its Exclusive Economic Zone is one of the largest in the world, covering more than 15 times its land area. Besides the North and South Islands, the 5 largest are Stewart, Chatham, Great Barrier, D'Urville and Waiheke near Auckland. It also includes the territories of Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, plus the Ross Dependency, the country’s claim in Antarctica.
The islands are part of a microcontinent that broke from Gondwana. In the late Paleogene, compression led to uplift along the Alpine Fault and volcanism. The Puysegur Trench was created in the south along with , the Hikurangi, Kermadec and Tonga Trenches further north, east of the plate boundary where the the Indo-Australian Plate subducts under the Pacific Plate.
The South Island is divided by the Southern Alps the highest of which is Mount Cook at 3,754m. Steep mountain and fjords in the southwest are the result of extensive glaciation.
The North Island is less mountainous but with volcanic peaks. The active Taupo Volcanic Zone has formed a plateau including Mount Ruapehu at 2,797m and Lake Taupo within the caldera of a supervolcano. Being geographically isolated the country also developed a distinctive biodiversity.
All of New Zealand’s oil and gas comes from the Taranaki Basin on the southwest side of North Island around Mount Taranaki, on and offshore. Onshore production began in 1866 but the offshore Maui gas field, which came onstream in 1979, has provided the bulk of the hydrocarbons.
Maui is now in decline but new reserves have been developed since 2006 at the offshore and onshore Pohokura gas field and at the offshore Tui, Maari and Kupe oil fields. Along with other small fields, Globalshift expects that output will be maintained for a period but will soon fall sharply unless new plays can be identified in deep waters in the country’s other basins. Globalshift does not forecast output from any new productive areas in the short or medium term.
NEW ZEALAND
Map and National Flag
Australasia
Capital (largest city)
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Wellington (Auckland)
4.4 mm
270,467
27
4.8
148
4.8
Government
New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. The UK monarch is head of state, represented by a governor-general appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Executive power exercised by a Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister. The unicameral Parliament comprises a democratically elected 71-seat House of Representatives with supremacy over the Crown.
The oil and gas industry is overseen by the Minister of Energy and Resources with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) providing administrative support for this post.
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals is the government agency within the Ministry that leads and actively manages the country’s petroleum and minerals portfolio.
The major industry body is the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand. There are no NOCs.
Geology and History of Exploration
The on and offshore Taranaki Basin is the only producing region in New Zealand. It contains a number of small- to medium-sized oil and gas fields. Clastic reservoirs occur throughout the Cretaceous to Cenozoic interval with discoveries in terrestrial, shallow marine, and deep marine formations.
The oldest producing intervals were deposited during Cretaceous rifting as the break-up of eastern Gondwanaland proceeded. Basin fill comprises Late Cretaceous to Late Oligocene sediments laid down in a transgressive phase.
The overlying Neogene is composed of thick, foreland deposits within a back arc and thrust belt setting. These were laid down in a regressive phase related to subduction at the Australian-Pacific Plate boundary.
All other basins in New Zealand have failed to yield commercial hydrocarbons although deep water regions have barely been drilled.
History - Oil and gas seeps, emanating from sediments of the Taranaki Basin, were first seen on Ngamotu Beach in New Plymouth by both Maori and early European settlers. The first well was then drilled in 1865 near Motorua where oil seeps had been recognised around a volcanic plug. The well, named Alpha, was hand-dug to 55m. It briefly produced oil at around 2 bbls per day from Pliocene sands.
Away from the Taranaki Basin oil seeps were reported from the East Coast Basin in the Poverty Bay District in 1866, from the Westland Basin at Kotuku in 1897, and in Chertsey Borehole-1, drilled in the Canterbury Basin in 1917.
The first commercial field was developed at Motorua and brought onstream in 1904. However, it was not until 1959 when a major gas discovery (Kapuni-1) was made by Shell BP & Todd Oil Services following an extensive seismic survey over the southern Taranaki Peninsula. It caused a surge in onshore activity in the area.
Motorua had been the only producing field until 1970 when Kapuni came onstream. The smaller McKee field was developed in 1980 followed by a series of modest-sized fields from 1988.
The Continental Shelf Act was passed in 1964 and drilling then began offshore on the Eastern Taranaki Mobile Belt and on the Western Platform. In 1969 Shell BP & Todd Oil Services discovered the Maui wet gas and oil field which was the largest in the country. Maui began producing in 1979.
Exploration then peaked in the mid 1980s but no further offshore fields were developed until 2006 during another peak in exploration activity.
Increased exploration activity ended in 2014 by which time a total of 62 discoveries had been made and there were 24 producing fields, all in the Taranaki Basin. The offshore fields, although much fewer in number, have produced substantially more oil and gas than the more numerous onshore fields. Oil and gas output, as well as activity, are now in decline.
In April 2018 the New Zealand Government announced a ban on new offshore permits and new onshore permits outside Taranaki as part of the Zero Carbon Bill. Consequently the 2018 Block Tender of onshore acreage was significantly reduced in area.
The investment potential of the country has thus been downgraded with some large companies exiting, although there remained a possibility that the policy would be reversed by a new government.
Oil and gas production and activity in New Zealand are forecast by Globalshift to continue the steady decline that began before 2014. Opportunities are dwindling, large companies have left, and environmental policies have deterred explorers from investing in the country.
NEW ZEALAND: SEDIMENTARY BASINS
Globalshift.co.uk (source: Te Ara Encyclopaedia of NZ)