Petroleum in New Zealand

New Zealand’s oil and gas industry is built on the back of early exploration and development dating back to the 1950s. The modern industry in New Zealand has a well-developed oil and gas infrastructure and a proactive globally-competitive oil and gas regime.

New Zealand's petroleum basins

There has been oil and gas activity in New Zealand for more than 150 years.

Phases of petroleum exploration and production

Prospecting and exploration activities aim to identify the location and size of petroleum fields and whether extracting the resource is likely to be profitable.

Petroleum statistics

Technical data and samples are managed by government and made publically available.

History of petroleum

Historically, New Zealand's Māori indigenous people had knowledge of oil and gas, particularly from onshore seeps on the North Island's east coast.

Tui Project

The NZ Government has commenced work to manage the Tui oil field assets and plan for decommissioning of its wells.