Motorists will face petrol price rises tomorrow, with a three cents a litre government tax increase, pushing total tax on petrol to about 42.7 per cent of the pump price.

Mobil plans to replace its own staff with up to 70 contract agents in a major shakeup at the country's oldest oil company.

Mining on conservation land, deep-sea oil drilling, subdivisions on unspoilt coastline, cranes in suburbia - they bring protests on the streets and rouse neighbours from their burrows.

Greymouth Petroleum director Jim Sturgess must take primary responsibility for the "destruction of trust" between himself and two other board members at the oil and gas company.

Shell says its campaign to squeeze untapped gas from the Maui field is meeting expectations as it casts it net to far flung parts of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone.

Kiwi sports stars have thrown their support behind a new campaign to protect what they say is a major threat to New Zealand beaches.

Sam Judd takes a look at the good side of genetic modification and how breakthroughs in a highly-criticised area of science could help the environment.

Is NZ really an expensive place to live? Overall the answer is yes, according to a global price survey. But as Amelia Wade finds in a checklist of 24 items, it all depends on what you're buying.

The Government is opening up more of the Taranaki, the East Coast , Northland Canterbury and Great South Basins to oil and gas explorers.

Prime Minister John Key says he is confident safety and environment rules being brought in to cover oil and gas exploration will keep out "cowboy "operators.

The price of petrol has dropped below $1.95 a litre - the cheapest it's been for more than two years.

A protest which halted a mining giant's oil exploration on NZ's high seas and prompted a controversial law change cost taxpayers nearly $1.7 million, documents show.

Hundreds of beached dolphin carcasses, shrimp with no eyes, contaminated fish, ancient corals caked in oil and some seriously unwell people are among the legacies that scientists are still uncovering in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon spill in the US.

Woodside Petroleum is confident of meeting its full-year targets as it posts a sharp jump in quarterly production and starts exploration work in Burma.

Hoani Murray is an oil-rig boss, with weighty responsibilities and a generous salary.

Residents of a tiny rural community will gather this Tuesday to ponder its status as one of the most intensively drilled places in the country.

New Zealand company Todd Corporation is providing financial backing for a planned $1.3 billion methanol plant that will be the largest in North America.

A major report on fracking in New Zealand has been set back again, due to the complexity of the investigation.

Nearly three years on from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, oil giant BP has been accused of being a company where "money mattered more than the environment".

Economic modelling based on ethanol, which has its limitations as a fuel, may underestimate the potential yields and value added, writes Brian Fallow.

American biologist Kelly Swing thwacks a bush with his butterfly net and a dozen or so bugs and insects drop in. One is a harvester, or daddy-long-legs, another a jumping spider that leaps on to a leaf where two beetles are mating.

Editorial: In matters related to oil and gas exploration, the Government is becoming accustomed to putting a brave face on detrimental developments.