By CHRIS DANIELS energy reporter
Notification of resource consents for the Pohokura field is another step in the development of New Zealand's newest natural gas field.
The joint owners of the field, Shell, Todd Energy and German energy giant Preussag Energie, have applied for 38 resource consents from the Taranaki Regional Council
and the New Plymouth District Council to build the facilities to bring the gas ashore and pump it to customers.
Shell has also indicated that the consortium will consider "entering into a formal process" for selling the gas when it becomes available in 2005.
Any such tender is likely to involve the sale of about half the field's expected reserves - 500 petajoules of gas worth up to $1 billion.
The Pohokura field is thought to be around one third the size of the Maui field, which has supplied New Zealand with some of the cheapest natural gas in the world for 20 years.
Final investment decisions are likely to be made in March or April next year.
Bruce Aitken, managing director of Methanex, said his company was interested in securing new supplies of gas so it could continue making methanol in New Zealand.
Methanex uses 44 per cent of all gas consumed in the country - 90 petajoules a year,
Aitken said there was a lot of undiscovered gas in the Taranaki Basin, and it should not be assumed the company would leave New Zealand once Maui gas supplies finished.
Methanex exports methanol worth around $800 million a year and employs 220 people in Taranaki.
Other customers keen for a good supply of natural gas are the electricity generators, primarily Genesis and Contact Energy, both of which use Maui gas to make electricity at their thermal power stations at Huntly and Otahuhu.
Genesis recently taken its shareholding in the Kupe gas field from 50 per cent to 70 per cent
Kupe is the next largest proven gas field after Pohokura.
Maui gas is expected to run out two years ahead of schedule, meaning new production is needed by 2007, not 2009 as first thought.
