NZ Petroleum Conference speaker profile: John Kidd

Source: Ross Louthean – www.NZresources.com

The head of research for Wellington-based stockbroking firm McDouall Stuart has followed the progress of increasing oil and gas exploration, lifting production and New Zealand’s more business friendly atmosphere.

Kidd has authored several reports and he led the McDouall Stuart team that produced the detailed “Stepping Up” report, commissioned by NZ’s Crown Minerals on the state of play, the energy options for the country and ways to enliven bourse trading and its practices.

Kidd told NZResources.com that a special report on the NZ petroleum scene would be produced by McDouall Stuart in September, obviously to coincide with the conference in Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre from the 19th to 21st.

He has often raised the issue of a government need to eliminate political uncertainty for the expensive and risk-laden oil and gas exploration business -- and also for mineral exploration – with prime challenges being regulatory uncertainty and related access issues.

In his preface to the Stepping Up document for government Kidd said: “There is a strong case for greater leadership from Government.

“Enhanced national benefits of strengthened national and regional economic development, improved security of primary and secondary energy supply, and stronger internal and external financial accounts would all flow from greater oil, gas and minerals self-sufficiency.”

The NZ Government’s push on improved scientific approaches, spearheaded by Science & Technology Minister Wayne Mapp and Energy & Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee, has seen more funds and impetus ploughed into research and development. One of the beneficiaries is GNS Science.

Since the release of Stepping Out last year, the thirst to generate new data, particularly for deepwater frontier oil and gas exploration, has accelerated and GNS Science has been engaged to undertake new work.

One of the potential energy sources to come into the limelight in the past 12 months is gas hydrates – the crystalline water-based solids that resemble ice in appearance. Gases are trapped inside the “cages” of water molecules and is held in a transitional storage state, dependent on local temperatures and pressure situations.

Gas hydrates exist on the seabed and NZ is considered to have a large gas hydrate endowment.

McDouall Stuart had estimated the seabed off the East Coast between Marlborough and Gisborne, may hold up to 800 tcf of gas, of which 21 tcf is associated with “particularly rich deposits.”

Annual gas demand in NZ was estimated at 0.15 tcf and the inference was that gas hydrate potential was equivalent to about five times the size of the old Maui gas field and could supply NZ for 140 years at existing usage levels.

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