petroleum permit<\/a>, which covers a 546 sq km area east of the Kupe gas field, in a statement on Wednesday, calling it a “major milestone”.<\/p>\n“It is a clear signal that confidence is returning and investors are once again prepared to back New Zealand’s resource potential,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Exploration does not guarantee a discovery, but it is an essential first step in understanding the resources New Zealand may have available to support future prosperity.”<\/p>\n
EnZed is expected to carry out a staged exploration, beginning with a study of seismic data and geological studies.<\/p>\n
Jones’ statement said the area included the Kaheru prospect, which was “a promising exploration target”.<\/p>\n
He said previous policy settings – presumably referring to the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration – had for too long discouraged investment in the sector, which “plays a critical role in supporting energy security, industrial activity and economic growth”.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the faster-than-expected depletion of existing gas fields, with “proven and probable” reserves having fallen 23 percent in 2025 to the lowest level since records began, saying it “underlines the need to better understand the country’s remaining resource potential”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government has granted Australian firm EnZed Energy a 12-year permit to look for oil in the Taranaki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-548674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548674","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=548674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}