New Zealand gains ranking in world's oil search stakes

By CHRIS DANIELS energy writer

New Zealand's oil industry has received a boost, being named as one of the top 20 countries in the world for exploration investment.

The Ministry of Economic Development's Crown Minerals unit yesterday announced NZ's top-20 ranking in a survey by the international oil consultancy firm IHS Energy Group.

An overall country rating of 19 was awarded to New Zealand, the highest this country has attained, up five places from last year and 18 places from the year before.

In its monthly publication, Petroleum News, Crown Minerals said the main reason for the big jump in ratings was the increase in exploration activity in this country.

The "exploration attractiveness" rating is judged by looking at a country's political stability, the amount of royalties or taxes that need to be paid and the amount of exploration activity going on in that country.

Crown Minerals' petroleum sector manager, Clyde Bennett, said a big component of the survey - known as the exploration and production rank - was a reflection of how much investment had already occurred.

It showed the perceived link between existing exploration activity and the likelihood that there was oil to find - in other words, if others were looking for it in a certain area, then it was more likely to be there.

IHS Energy Group spokesman David Anderson said that New Zealand's distance from world oil markets had tended to depress its rating in past surveys, but a lot of companies were now rating political stability highly.

New Zealand was ranked by the survey as number one in the Far East/Australasia region for the fiscal and political factors, and fourth as an exploration site.

These survey results would be welcome news to the ministry, which was in the middle of a bidding round for exploration permits around New Zealand.

Promising results of recent seismic survey of the sea floor off Taranaki had also just been announced by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science.

A bidding round, where the big global oil companies would be given permission to explore for oil in this part of the Tasman, was expected to be launched next year.