A former senior energy company executive has told Hawke's Bay audiences New Zealand is "extremely well placed" to cash in on an oil and gas exploration boom and has nothing to fear from fracking.
Roland Williams, a former international head of Shell's gas and coal business and a past executive chairman of the company's Australian business, spoke to audiences in Napier and Hastings yesterday.
Dr Williams' visit to Hawke's Bay comes as interest in oil and gas exploration intensifies in the region.
"There is an awful lot of business out there and if New Zealand can participate in it, it's good, solid, well-based business and there's a long future in it," he told the Napier meeting.
Dr Williams said he did not know what the prospects were of finding exportable quantities of oil and gas along the East Coast but the country had much to gain if it could tap into supplying the growing global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG).