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NZ oil exports now 70% of oil imports new quarterly statistics show
1 April 2008 - A new quarterly survey of energy statistics and trends shows that exports of New Zealand-produced oil equalled almost 70% of import oil volumes in the December quarter of 2007.
The first edition of the New Zealand Energy Quarterly, which provides free emailed quarterly statistics on major fuels, electricity generation, greenhouse gas emissions and fuel price’s has been released by the Ministry of Economic Development.
This publication replaces Statistics New Zealand’s Energy Statistics Hot Off The Press. It is one of a series of initiatives that MED and Statistics New Zealand are undertaking to improve the quality of energy reporting.
MED is now the primary source for energy production and generation statistics, while Statistics will be the primary source for energy end-use statistics.
The publication says that thanks to the strongly performing Tui oil field New Zealand produced its highest quarterly level of crude oil and condensate production in the December 2007 quarter.
The record output, coupled with the high value for New Zealand’s light sweet crude, contributed to an unexpected narrowing of New Zealand’s trade deficit in the latter half of 2007.
If oil production remains around current levels, 2008 is expected to post a new annual record for crude oil and condensate production in New Zealand, Energy Quarterly says.
(One of the Tui partners New Zealand Oil & Gas also announced a further upwards revision of Tui’s oil production target for the year to 30 June 2008, to 13 million barrels from its previous forecast of 11 mmbbls for the same period.)
Other Energy Quarterly highlights are:
• New Pohokura field increases gas production.
• Electricity generated from gas was up over 55% in quarter, while electricity generated from coal was down by over 45%.
• Greenhouse gas emission from electricity generation declines mainly because of start-up of e3P gas turbine at Huntly and back off of coal generation.
The New Zealand Energy Quarterly is free to download or subscribe to by going to www.med.govt.nz/energy/nzeq/ . The Ministry also provides up-to-date information via its energy data web pages at www.med.govt.nz/energy/data/
