{"id":457924,"date":"2026-06-03T00:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/457924\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T00:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:05:12","slug":"companies-race-to-lodge-interest-in-governments-200-million-gas-exploration-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/457924\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies race to lodge interest in Government\u2019s $200 million gas exploration fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon said that the possibility of the ban on offshore gas exploration returning could \u201cpose an insurmountable barrier for some investors\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Hipkins refused Luxon\u2019s request. \u201cIt\u2019s clear this is a political stunt rather than a genuine attempt at building bipartisan consensus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Minister for Resources bullish<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Resources Minister Shane Jones is \u201cpleasantly surprised\u201d by the strong level of interest the fund has received.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have been to Singapore, I have travelled to other places, and we have been able to attract not only domestic but international interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Jones said there is a particular interest in both Taranaki and the South Island.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI imagine that the applications, when they\u2019re approved, will disproportionately pertain to Taranaki,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Resources Minister Shane Jones is &quot;pleasantly surprised&quot; by the strong level of interest the fund has received. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Resources Minister Shane Jones is &#8220;pleasantly surprised&#8221; by the strong level of interest the fund has received. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Jones also provided some detail about the types of projects the private sector is proposing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cInterest is coming from people who are keen to expand the capacity of us to store gas, because it\u2019s not only about us accessing additional sources of gas for industry and power consumption, but in the event that we have more gas than we require, we\u2019ve got to work our way out in New Zealand how we can store it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Possible return of oil and gas exploration ban<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Labour has promised to reinstate the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration if it takes power after the election, meaning the energy sector would no longer be able to obtain new permits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s nearly a quarter of a century since we had a significant commercial offshore oil and gas find in New Zealand,\u201d Labour\u2019s energy spokeswoman Megan Woods said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Labour Energy spokeswoman Megan Woods said the gas is not there and the country needs &quot;to be planning for a future that gives us energy security and allows New Zealand households and businesses to afford their power bills&quot;.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Labour Energy spokeswoman Megan Woods said the gas is not there and the country needs &#8220;to be planning for a future that gives us energy security and allows New Zealand households and businesses to afford their power bills&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe need to wake up. We need to face facts. It\u2019s not there, and we need to be planning for a future that gives us energy security and allows New Zealand households and businesses to afford their power bills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Jones disagreed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s ludicrous for my foe in the Greens and Labour to breathlessly assert that there\u2019s no gas left in New Zealand. Gas is about geology, not ideology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere\u2019s always been potential in New Zealand, and the geologists confirm there is more gas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">However, Jones wants to make sure any investment the Government makes from this fund won\u2019t be easily rolled back if Labour was to return to power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe private sector is fearful that should there, God forbid, be a change in government, that once again their rights will be indiscriminately eroded if not cancelled,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have every intention of making announcements before the next election to cover the entirety of the $200 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWithin the contracts between the Crown and the successful parties it is my intention to ensure that those contracts cannot be disfigured or summarily cancelled without significant damages clauses. That will be my advice to my Cabinet colleagues once decisions have been made.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Troy Matich is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2025, previously working for RNZ as a producer for Morning Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luxon said that the possibility of the ban on offshore gas exploration returning could \u201cpose an insurmountable barrier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[78777,3225,4619,138,232593,8556,1122,2354,208299,30271,295,16460,7237,78,15415,374,12469,68199,173,1132,28874,111,51026,139,69,5908,13578,7798,19764,13181,7811,61,8238],"class_list":["post-457924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-78777","tag-according","tag-act","tag-business","tag-coinvest","tag-companies","tag-employment","tag-exploration","tag-expressions","tag-figures","tag-fund","tag-gas","tag-governments","tag-in","tag-information","tag-innovation","tag-interest","tag-january","tag-lodge","tag-million","tag-ministry","tag-new-zealand","tag-newstalk","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-official","tag-projects","tag-race","tag-received","tag-released","tag-since","tag-to","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}