{"id":609229,"date":"2026-09-23T12:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T12:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609229\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T12:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T12:54:13","slug":"decision-on-lng-terminal-delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609229\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision on LNG terminal delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACT and New Zealand First have all but confirmed a decision on whether the government should underwrite a new liquefied natural gas terminal has been put off until after the election.<\/p>\n

The government had been intending to sign a contract for the LNG terminal before the election, so it could be up and running by mid-2028.<\/a><\/p>\n

The intent is so the country has back-up to mitigate dry-year risk, but the government has had to back down on introducing levy to pay for the terminal.<\/p>\n

The energy minister, Simeon Brown, has previously said the a contract could still be signed during the election campaign.<\/p>\n

A Cabinet committee had met on Wednesday morning to discuss the plans.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said no decision had been made.<\/p>\n

“The Cabinet position was not to make a decision today, and that’s where the matter sits at this point in time, and that’s precisely and totally what the decision was. So any other variations and translations are false.”<\/p>\n

\"Winston<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Peters confirmed that was the collective decision of all three parties at the sub-committee, and that there had been no pushback.<\/p>\n

He would not say what his preference was, but it was a “possibility” he would express a view on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

ACT leader and deputy prime minister David Seymour said ACT’s position was that the government got the best possible deal, and it would be responsible to keep its options open.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know that a deal is possible before the election,” he said.<\/p>\n

It did not mean ACT opposed work continuing on the terminal, however.<\/p>\n

\"ACT<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Nathan McKinnon<\/p>\n

“There can be progress. I mean, the government is carrying out a tender, and that can continue. But it doesn’t mean that you make your decision before the election,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n

He said signing a contract before the election would be “irresponsible.”<\/p>\n

Brown would not talk about what was discussed in Cabinet or Cabinet committees, and said he would have more to say when decisions were made.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately the process will, to some extent, dictate the timing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Methanex, which was at times using close to half the country’s natural gas supply, is closing its Taranaki plant next year.<\/p>\n

Genesis Energy has since announced it has picked up major gas contracts that run from March next year to December 2029.<\/p>\n

Brown said that may “provide some relief,” but the government would continue to work through the LNG process.<\/p>\n

“There’s multiple steps that need to be taken before a final contract can be signed, regardless. But there are steps that need to be taken. That process, as I have said, is underway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT and New Zealand First have all but confirmed a decision on whether the government should underwrite a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-609229","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\/609229","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=609229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}