EnergyStream News

By Neil Ritchie

NEARLY everything in Western Australia is either massive or arid – massive energy projects and company headquarters or miles and miles of arid scrub and desert, even in the outer suburbs of Perth.

By Neil Ritchie

The New Zealand oil and gas industry, centred on Taranaki, has certainly been busy over the past month or so with national and multinational companies active over almost the length and breadth of the country.

While one minor American explorer has exited New Zealand and a few have relinquished some exploration acreage, many more have renewed existing licences or won new ones in a variety of regions – from the onshore East Coast down to Southland.

By Neil Ritchie

New Energy and Resources Minister Phil Heatley toured Taranaki’s oil and gas facilities for the first time in late February and liked what he saw.

“What impressed me the most about the visit was the very large, the huge contribution the industry makes to the region’s economy, and the national economy, but its environmental footprint is very small,” Heatley said, referring the physical size of the sites dotted around the province and offshore.

By Neil Ritchie

The New Zealand oil and gas industry was very busy during 2011, with most activity still centred around Taranaki and all of the few new discoveries made in the country’s only producing petroleum province.

The highlights far outweighed the lowlights, with more companies than ever exploring regions, from Northland to Southland and Otago, for conventional petroleum products, the unconventional coal seam gas, shale oil and gas, and now even mudstones and siltstones.