Finance Minister Bill English says the government has been "beefing up" its research into the viability of fracking in Hawke's Bay.
The Deputy Prime Minister yesterday stopped off at Hawke's Bay Today's offices to talk oil and gas exploration, rugby and other issues facing the province, just two weeks out from delivering the 2012 Budget.
Mr English said while he hadn't seen any specific economic payoffs for fracking in the Hawke's Bay region, the government had taken a proactive approach to the "legitimate concerns".
"We've taken a general approach that if you want more jobs and higher incomes you have to do some things - you can't just sit there doing nothing," Mr English said.
"We have the opportunity in New Zealand for oil and gas exploration because there's evidence we've actually got a reasonable amount of it. In fact oil and gold is New Zealand's top export to Australia.