Webinars

This webinar discusses the following topics:

• the Fast-track Approvals regime
• Offshore renewable energy
• hydrogen
• Open Market Application processes
• ban reversal 
• the establishment of a “Tier 3” permit
• decommissioning.

[“New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals Webinar” title on screen]

[Switches to slide “General update from NZP&M”. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   0:06
Welcome everyone, Tēnā tātou katoa and Ata mārie. Welcome to our webinar for New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals. Thanks for joining. Today's webinar gives us a really fantastic opportunity to engage with all of you on recent and upcoming changes in the P&M and offshore renewable energy areas, whether it's legislation changes and repealing the ban or more practical operational changes around permitting.

Firstly, I want to introduce myself for those of you who haven't yet met me. I'm Katherine MacNeill and I've just joined as the new General Manager of Resources at MBIE, following on from Bruce Parkes. I’m really looking forward to meeting all of you, if I haven't had the chance to engage with you yet, over the coming weeks and months.

I'd also like to thank you, apart from attending, for those of you who submitted questions in advance, that's really helpful for us to help target the presentation and also to make sure we can answer as many of those questions as possible. 

[Slide changes to the programme for the Webinar.]

A little bit of housekeeping before we commence. We're going to be recording this webinar for those who couldn't attend today and publishing it on the NZPAM website. Just be mindful of that in terms of this will be a public recording.

You can also ask questions today that will be available through the Q&A function on Teams. If we can answer those questions today we will. Obviously, some of the questions may be more specific to a company and we'll take those ones offline.

And if we can't answer your question today, we'll do that in the next few days and send that out along with a link to the recording.

I'll be your host for the webinar today and we have a range of speakers for you. Following this introduction, we'll have Kylie speaking to an overview of Fast-track and Offshore Renewable Energy developments, Nayana will speak to hydrogen and then you’ll come back to me, and I'll talk a little bit about the changes to the Crown Minerals Act and the progress of the Bill and decommissioning. John will speak about the open market applications approach and Aidan will talk about Tier 3. I'll finish off with a little bit more on decommissioning before we get into the detailed Q&A at the end. We're looking at maybe 45 minutes for a webinar today and we’ll make sure that we finish in a timely manner, so you get a chance to hear everything that there is to say. So, with that, I think that's enough from me. I will hand over to the first speaker, Kylie, who's going to speak to Fast-track and Offshore Renewable Energy.

[Kylie Smeaton begins talking. Slide changes to “Fast-track approvals regime”.]

Kylie Smeaton   2:35
I am going to talk to you a little bit about both Fast-track and the Offshore Renewable Energy regime. Many of you will know the Fast-track Approvals Act came into force in late December/early February and that provides an alternate one stop shop for approvals for projects that have significant national or regional benefit, making it faster and more efficient to get your approvals. That covers resource consents, notice of requirements, certificates of compliance under things like the Resource Management Act, the Conservation Act, the Reserves Act, and also the Crown Minerals Act.

[Slide changes.]

The difference here is that expert panels obviously consider the approvals as a single application package, hence the one stop shop, and the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA is the lead for Fast-track, so they manage the process and administer that on behalf of the Minister for Infrastructure. All applications are made directly to EPA through the application process, and there are really strict legislative timeframes around how long everyone has to do the various components of the process. It is user pays, that means that if you are going through that process, that you are paying and it’s a fully cost recovered basis for the regime, but it is a definitely a one stop shop approval process.

What that means for mining permits is that you can seek approval for your mining permits along with all of your resource consents through that pathway. There are two pathways, referral and listed projects. The referral processes is where you can make an application to the Minister for Infrastructure to have your project included in Fast-track and the listed projects are those that are already selected by the Government for Fast-track and were included in schedule two of the Act when that came into force. Those projects don't need to go through the referral process, they can go straight to their substantive application.

One of the things around it is that you will need to do pre-lodgement consultation with us if you're seeking a mining permit under the Crown Minerals Act or a land access arrangement under the Crown Minerals Act and before you submit that application, you come to us and we work through with you to explain what you know, what things you'll be asked to provide as part of that application. We are not the decision makers around the granting of those permits, an expert panel considers the application and makes a decision. We provide advice to the Minister for Infrastructure on whether that approval is approved, declined or any conditions are added to it. So, New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals does get to provide comments or advice to the panel as part of that process if they're asked to do so. It's just a little bit of an overview of the Fast-track approval regime. You will find information on both the Fast-track website which is fasttrack.govt.nz or on our NZPAM website you will find a bunch of information around your mining permit approvals, and you can then come and reach out to us for any additional information you want. 

[Slide changes to “Offshore Renewable Energy Bill”.]

The Offshore Renewable Energy Bill aims to deliver the Government commitment to the Electrify New Zealand Plan, and it establishes a regulatory regime for Offshore Renewable Energy. The Bill is currently in the House at the moment and working its way through the legislative process. But the gist of it is that it introduces a two-stage permitting regime: a feasibility permit, which will be granted for up to seven years and then a commercial permit which will run for up to 40 years and there will be further renewals. And it creates the ability to have offshore renewable. It is not specific to a particular type of renewable energy. Wind is the most advanced technology in New Zealand, but the legislation is set up to allow for other forms of renewable technology. 

The Bill that's in the House at the moment places obligations on permits holders around what they will need to do in order to get the feasibility permit, what work programmes they will have to have, and then again in the commercial permit stage and it is expected that if all goes well the Bill will be passed and initiated in late 2025, with the first of those feasibility permits granted in early 2026, obviously subject to parliamentary process. So, those are two interesting pieces of legislation that we are picking up in the Resource Markets regulatory space and I'm really excited to see those go through and to support those. 

[Kylie Smeaton finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill introduces Nayana Islam to talk about Hydrogen. Slide changes to “Hydrogen”.]

Nayana Islam   7:31
I'm just going to give a little bit of an overview of the hydrogen work programme we're currently progressing. As some of you might know, the Government has committed to enabling the exploration of natural hydrogen and the development of orange hydrogen. This commitment was reflected in a hydrogen action plan that was published last year, as well as the Minerals Strategy that was published earlier this year.

Some of you might be wondering what natural and orange hydrogen is so I thought I would quickly cover that off. Natural hydrogen which has a lot of names, is also known as gold, white, native or geological hydrogen, is generated naturally below the surface of the Earth. Orange hydrogen is engineered or artificially generated, with the additional benefit of being able to store carbon underground as well. Basically, New Zealand's geology makes it a promising location for both types of hydrogen. The minerals that are likely to generate natural and orange hydrogen are along the length of New Zealand. There is growing industry interest in exploring this potential.
In New Zealand it is quite an active area globally, as well around the exploration of research.

Why is the Government interested in enabling exploration and development of both natural hydrogen and orange hydrogen? It’s likely to be cheaper and less carbon intensive to produce than other types of hydrogen and it also doesn't produce any carbon emissions when it's used and combusted. So, these hydrogen sources could unlock opportunities. And to reduce emissions and how to electrify industries, for example, steel, cement, chemical production and heavy land transport activities, it could maintain and build high value economic activity. Also create employment in the industry with export potential. It could also support energy security and reliability, for example reducing the reliance of imported fossil fuels.

In terms of the work programme, what is the Government is doing?

It is an emerging area; other countries are also trying to figure out how to best regulate it. New Zealand's the same. Based on the work we've done and initial feedback, the current regulatory framework does lack clarity and certainty needed for investment. What the Government has done, some of you might have seen, has released a discussion document on regulatory proposals to support development that was published last month. The discussion document has a lot of background information about what the two types of hydrogen are, and what the potential could be in New Zealand, and also mentions the two high level options. One of the options including hydrogen in the definition of a mineral, to regulate it as a mineral under the CMA, the Crown Minerals Act. The second option is around excluding hydrogen under the definition of the CMA and regulating it as a non-mineral natural resources, that would be primarily under the Resource Management Act or whatever the new resource management regime might look like. 

The discussion document also seeks alternative ideas and approaches that may be better suited for this emerging sector. We really encourage those that are interested to provide your feedback and your thoughts about what the regulatory system should look like. You can access the discussion document and the submissions form on the MBIE website, please have a look. We're really looking forward to all the industry feedback on it. Consultation does close 5pm on Friday 4th July.

[Nayana Islam finishes speaking. Slide changes to “Crown Minerals Amendment Bill”. Katherine MacNeill begins talking.]

Katherine Macneill   11:39
We're looking forward to some industry feedback on all of those topics we've discussed so far. I'm going to speak to the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill and where we're at in that process. Just a reminder, I think many of you will know, but some of you may not be familiar with the detail. The Bill seeks to remove the ban on new petroleum exploration outside onshore Taranaki and it will be making adjustments to the decommissioning regime for petroleum. What we'll be speaking to a bit more in this webinar is that it allows for an open market applications approach for petroleum exploration permits. In the next presentation, we'll talk a bit about what that might look like. It also amends the purpose statement and some other changes to the Act and the detail to signal that New Zealand is open for business by bringing that promotion word back into the Act. Finally, it creates a new category of permits for small-scale non-commercial gold mining or Tier 3 which we'll speak to a bit more in the webinar. 

[Slide changes to “Progress of the bill”]

So, where are we at with the Bill? It was introduced in September 2024 and has gone through the EDSI Select Committee, and it's currently awaiting the third reading. As the Bill progressed, as I think some of you will be aware, a gap was identified in the decommissioning regime. This has led to some changes being made to the Bill, in November 2024, to make sure we got the balance right in terms of decommissioning and the liabilities and the obligations that set on participants in the industry and the ones that sit on the Crown and ultimately on taxpayers as well. Those changes have proved to be highly complex, and as a result this is why the Bill has not yet passed, so that we could work through those complexities with the Minister and with others as well. We do anticipate the Bill will be progressed through its last stages in the House and pass in the coming months, hopefully soon, and once the Bill is passed, most of the changes take effect immediately and the intention is that new applications for petroleum permits and also for the Tier 3 minerals permits, those new permits, would be accepted for consideration from September this year. 

You can see that we're expecting that passage of the Bill very soon to enable that to take place and progress, so that the ban is lifted and also that those new permit applications can come in. 

[Katherine MacNeill finishes speaking. Slide changes to “Reversing the Ban on Petroleum Exploration”. John Decker begins speaking.]

John Decker   14:13
I'll be talking about this open market application process. It's really a creation of what is currently a draft petroleum programme, for those of you who have been following it, we basically went out for consultation a while back on this new draft minerals programme for petroleum and also one for minerals, but really this sets out the process for dealing with what are essentially ad hoc applications for exploration permits, but also for prospecting permits with rights to subsequently apply for exploration permits. We're calling those OMA applications.

We obviously did get quite a few submissions on this, and we're all working through those at the moment and deliberating on that. Once we finalise what we're recommending, that'll then go through to Cabinet and they'll obviously make the decision, so what we hear today isn't the last word on the matter but 
it hopefully will give you some indication of what our current thinking is in terms of the policy intent behind the process.

[Slide changes to “Status quo”.]

For background, you probably were aware that the 2013 minerals programme for petroleum applies to petroleum permits. There are a couple provisions in there of relevance here and one being obviously that exploration permits are only available via public tender, for example through what we call stage work programme bidding which takes the form of what we mark as block offer and what this really means is you can't make applications at any time. As you heard earlier, that's being changed in the Act and obviously we're looking to reflect that in the programme also. 

The other thing about the current petroleum programme is that it really doesn't allow for prospecting permits with rights to subsequently apply for exploration permits. That's something that's different from all the other minerals that we have.

Instead, if you're a so-called promoter, so basically an explorer that has limited capability when you're applying, and is looking to really acquire acreage and then sort of bringing investments on that basis, in the case of a block offer, you have to apply for a thing called a conditional PEP, which is specifically created for public tenders under section 29B, but effectively that works very much like a prospecting permit in that you're only allowed to prospect until such a time as you pass this capability assessment. The advantage of this current approach has been it's designed when we had high oil price and there was a lot of interest and it's quite an efficient way to proactively manage large numbers of competing applications in those sort of conditions, and it's also a useful promotional vehicle, so if we've got newly acquired seismic data or something, we can promote that data and know we have these data packs or used to have these data packs for block offers and so on, so it's quite useful in that respect.

The downside though is it's quite inefficient if we're managing low numbers of applications and there's limited market interest. It's no secret that we haven't been granting many exploration permits in recent years and there's a time lag between when acreage gets surrendered and someone can actually submit an application, because we first have to go through the process of deciding what acreage to offer and so forth. It's also not ideal for Iwi consultation because we end up consulting Iwi over a large area that could potentially be offered, and they provide us with quite detailed submissions on different areas and ultimately most of the time it's areas that don't get applied for and then when we actually get applications it's a closed tender process and so we don't disclose the details of actual applications, so it's not ideal for Iwi either. 

[Slide changes to “What is changing”.]

What’s changing? We're looking to really expand allocation options for exploration permits beyond block offer, so the whole idea with open market applications is that petroleum exploration permits, or indeed petroleum prospecting permits with the rights to subsequently apply for an exploration permit, can be applied for over available land at any time. So, these are the so-called OMAs. 

What isn't changing is that we will still be able to offer exploration permits through public tender, such as block offer from time to time. This will be over land that's reserved for that purpose. That’s another one of the little changes we're making in the Act. I think in Section 28A which says you can reserve land for a particular kind of permit that's expanded to include a particular kind of allocation. For example, there was some newly required seismic in an area and we wanted to offer that in a block offer we could choose to do that. What’s also not changing is that we'll still have non-exclusive prospecting permits available to multiplying companies and you can still get speculative prospector status for the data you acquire and then it'll still get extended sort of 15-year confidentiality.

[Slide changes to “Proposed OMA process: Application”.]

How does the process work? Unlike block offer, it's not initiated by the Minister. That's initiated by the markets. It starts off with an application either for an exploration permit for petroleum, or prospecting permits for petroleum that's seeking a subsequent right to an exploration permit, so obviously it isn't triggered by a speculative prospector application. The application is then checked for completeness and for compliance with the requirements in the regulations - have you given all the information that we need, have you paid the fees, etc. Once we then accept, it's then immediately notified on our website as part of us initiating a miniature kind of competitive process and effectively the notification will have ideas to say this is applicant, this is area of applied for and at a high level this is the key elements of the work programme.

We consult Iwi then and obviously we can consult even further if things change, but whenever we get an application we then consult Iwi and other parties then also see this notification and they have three months to submit a competing application which can take the form of another permit or an extension of land from a neighbouring permit, if the other requirements for an extension of land are met.

[Slide changes to “OMA process: Evaluation”.]

After the three months ends, the idea is for the initial applicants, if it's for an exploration permit, to have an opportunity to improve their proposed work programme. The reason for this is that otherwise they're at a disadvantage of having to show their hand as it were, and then competing applications are then ranked and so obviously PEPs out rank PPPs for obvious reasons, you can't make a discovery on a prospecting permit. Prospecting permits are ranked by date of submissions, so first come first served. Exploration permits are ranked in the same way, or very much like how they would be ranked under block offer. So, like with stage work programme bidding, there will be points in terms of the work programme and there will be a few other criteria that can be considered at the end. Once we've ranked the applications, you then assess the top ranked application again as the test under Section 29A of the Act which was basically the things that you need to satisfy the Minister of to be granted a permit, like are you highly likely to comply given your financial or technical capability, is compliance records and so forth. Then at the end the highest ranked application, that also meets the relevant CMA test, is granted. 

You can probably envisage a situation where someone might propose a very good work programme, but they don't have the capability to deliver it, so they wouldn't get the permit. It'd be the highest ranked application that also meets those tests that gets the permits. That in a nutshell is OMA. So basically, the idea is we're trying to take the best elements of block offer, but apply it in a flexible sort of way that's responsive to the market and also hopefully works for Iwi too. 

[Katherine MacNeill appears on screen. John Decker finishes talking.]

Katherine MacNeill   22:33
We’re really keen here to develop a process that really works for industry and also for the Government to have a really efficient process and results in exploration progressing as well wherever possible where it meets the tests. So those of you who still have feedback on this process or any thoughts or questions on the detail of how it might work, we really would welcome that, so we provide really good clear guidance on how to work through this new process as well, when it comes into effect, as I said anticipated in September. So next we're going to speak to the Tier 3 process.

[Slide changes to “New Tier 3 permit for small-scale gold mining”. Katherine MacNeill finishes talking. Aidan Allan begins talking.]

Aidan Allan   23:14
Similar as to what others have said, everything relating to Tier 3 is part of the Bill going through Parliament at the moment. Of course, while things are still shaping up really well, some of the details and some of the design aspects still have potential to change slightly. The Bill itself proposes to introduce a new Tier 3 category of permits, and this is specifically designed for those small-scale gold mining operations, particularly those at the hobby and recreational end.

Why that focus? That actually constitutes quite a big part of the sector that we regulate. In the minerals space we have, just under 1000 permits at the moment that we look after and at any given time about 20 to 25% of those permits, and the applications relating to them, relate to that group of people. That group of people as well, they're subject to the same statutory tests, the same information requirements, the same reporting requirements as, for example, a large Tier 2 mining operation.

That gives you a sense that there's a fair bit of unnecessary complexity there, both for permit holders and also for us as a regulator. The Tier 3 permit regimes intended to streamline that application and reporting requirements process for that group of people. But also, to make sure that we still retain an appropriate level of regulatory oversight for that group.

To achieve that, there's going to be some clear boundaries for what qualifies as a Tier 3 permit. So, they will relate to gold only. They'll relate to mining that's occurring in the bed of a river, on a beach, or potentially both. The permit sizes, they'll be restricted to unbroken permit areas of 50 hectares or less. All of those Tier 3 permits will be subject to a specific work programme that's going to be specified within the Act itself, so that work programme will allow for mining of gold using hand tools, also powered equipment up to 10 horsepower. We see that as being pretty consistent with what we already see for our hobby operators, suction dredging within rivers, black sand gold mining on beaches using shovels and riffle boxes and the like.

There will be a new dedicated chapter within the Minerals programme, so that 
will outline how Tier 3 applications are going to be assessed so that we can have some transparency about that process and ensure that we have consistency and decision making as well. There's also going to be some new regulations, additions to the regulations, that will specify the information requirements to support a Tier 3 application and the reporting requirements as well. 

Also important to note that all other regulatory requirements will still apply, so people would still need to obtain resource consents. For example, if that's required in the area they're looking to do this and things like land access and everything still applies. Nothing is changing in relation to that.

There may be some existing Tier 2 hobby permit holders out there who are interested in the Tier 3 regime, and the intention is very much that there will be a transition process established that would allow a time limited opportunity for those existing Tier 2 permit holders who want to, to request that their permit is transitioned into this Tier 3 permit regime.

That won't be an automatic process, there will be some decision making around that and the acceptance is basically going to be built upon whether that existing permit meets the Tier 3 criteria already, and whether the permit area is appropriately plotted and things like that.

We also anticipate that there will be some scope to allow us to work with those permit holders to make some adjustments to their permits in order to help them make sure that they're meeting that Tier 3 criteria.

Overall, there’s still some final details that we're working through and certainly the feedback from consultation on the draft minerals programme has really helped us in shaping up the final approach that we're going to be taking. But overall, things are coming together really well and we're looking forward in the not too distant future to be standing up this streamlined regime targeted at our hobby permit holders.

[Aidan Allan finishes speaking. Slide changes to “Decommissioning Changes”. Katherine MacNeill begins talking.]

Katherine MacNeill   28:31
Hopefully that new approach we're taking, just like the new approach replacing block offers, this new approach to just go for as streamlined an approach as possible commensurate to the opportunity and to the risk involved in each of our permitting processes. I’ll speak now to decommissioning changes and I think there's a really high-level message we can make, which is to thank you all for those of you who've submitted or provided feedback in different forms and guises on the programmes that guidelines and on the decommissioning changes. Altogether it is really essential that we make these work and practice. 

The draft programmes and guidelines are currently being updated and obviously the legislation is still progressing through Parliament, we need to ensure that they reflect where that eventually lands, and we'll be able to provide some more information for participants in permit holders very soon.

I did want to speak to the why in terms of the decommissioning changes and I touched on it briefly earlier that the Government really wanted to ensure the right balance between obligations on participants in the Crown. This has meant the new drafting of complex provisions. But we'd need to make sure that our requirements in New Zealand align with international best practice and really balance that regulatory burden and risk appropriately between participants and the Crown and those the Crown represents. The decommissioning requirements that we've introduced into the CMA in 2021, were really intended to protect against a permit holder failing to carry out a funding commissioning and when that happens, if that happens. As we've seen, the responsibility for decommissioning falls to private landowners, the Crown, and ultimately taxpayers. Not every permit or permit holder or change of ownership carries the same risks and we need to make sure that the decommissioning requirements reflect that. I think we all know that some of the current settings are seen by industry as perhaps unnecessary, costly or onerous or lack flexibility and perhaps the compliance obligations are uncertain or unclear.

That is what we're addressing through these decommissioning changes to get that balance right and make sure that the provisions are workable in practice, regardless of how that balance falls, through Parliament, that those that legislation can actually work as intended, and that's what we're trying to do with those changes. Reiterating what I said earlier, we're expecting passage of the CMA Bill through the remaining stages of Parliament in the coming weeks and after that, that will be reflected in the programme in the guidelines so that we can receive new applications and for permits and be open for business and also deal with decommissioning around existing permit holders as well. That’s it on decommissioning and on the presentation part of this webinar, I'd like now to move on to our question-and-answer session.

[Slide changes to “Questions”.]

We did receive a good number of questions in advance, which was fantastic.
So that we can make sure we answer them in enough detail, some of those I will answer directly and other ones I'll be asking members of our panel to speak to as well. If we don't manage to answer your question full or haven't quite hit on what you were looking for, please do get in touch with us afterwards as well or follow up through the Q&A function so we can make sure we answer those questions you've got.

The first question on my list is “I'd be interested in a refresh on how to access permits off the NZP&M website, I seem to have difficulty each time. Are they no longer searchable? How do I get hold of these?” 

[Kylie Smeaton begins speaking.]

Kylie Smeaton   31:54
Yes, permits are still available via permit web maps, on our website. You can go into our permit web maps and search for permits. The easiest way to probably find it is to go to our main home page on NZP&M and under tools and services which is in the middle at the top of the page you will find permit web maps and if you click on that link that will take you through it. 

To the person who submitted that question, we'll also ask our team to reach out to you individually and just give you a bit of a refresh on that.

[Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   32:27
If anyone else has trouble accessing things on our website, please do give us that feedback if things are hard to find or aren't working as you'd expect. Sometimes we can deal with those things really quickly. Other times it might be more of a significant IT change but do feed them through as we refresh our materials and our systems, we can try and factor that in to improve the user experience as well.

The next question “I'm interested in how are you actually going to run the new offshore renewable energy regulator? How are you going to implement the offshore renewable energy legislation?” 

[Kylie Smeaton begins speaking.]

Kylie Smeaton   33:04
The Bill is still in the House. As you'll be aware things, as they progress through that, will no doubt come to light. But cabinet has agreed that the chief executive of MBIE will serve as the regulator for the offshore renewable regime, and that's because of the alignment with things like the Crown Minerals Act. But because of the significance of the regime, the Minister of Energy will be the decision maker and will be responsible for making those permit decisions.

The implementation sits with us in terms of progressing what we need in order to support that regulatory system and then our approach is going to be to ensure that as that works through, we will provide necessary implementation material guidance, application forms as that comes through applications will come to us and we will provide advice to the Minister of Energy to assist him in his decision making capacity.
That’s probably all we can share at this point is until we have firm settings in that the Bill has passed.

If you'd like to keep up to date if you go to the MBIE website, there is a section under the energy part of the MBIE website where you can go to find offshore renewable energy and you'll be able to sign up for further updates. It’s a good thing to do.

[Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   34:15
Just recognising that would be a new regime and unfamiliar to people and perhaps participants who are unfamiliar with our processes. If as we progress through this we really welcome feedback on the forms and guidance that we provide to make sure that there is support there so that people know what they need to do, know what the expectations and the criteria are, and make sure that they can put in high quality applications and that will really assist in processing those and providing speedy advice to the Minister and robust decision making as well. So please do feedback through that process and make sure it's a really workable one as well.

The next question, again, we're talking about data here. “Are the timelines for offshore multi-client data reset? What protections will be in place for investors in multi-client data sets in the future?”

[Kylie Smeaton begins speaking.]

Kylie Smeaton   35:07
John, please feel free to also provide some input here, but my understanding is that there is a proposed change in the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, which will provide an extension around speculative prospect data remaining confidential. And I believe it's about 15 years in that we are now going to take that to 21 years.

There will be some changes to make sure that it's just reflecting the previous ban on petroleum exploration. John, happy to take any further advice from you.

[John Decker begins speaking.]

John Decker   35:39
That extension applies to the historically acquired data so it wouldn't apply to anyone going forward. But in terms of any sort of new acquisition, those same provisions around being able to get speculative prospector status and having longer periods of dates, confidentiality, so basically 15 years remains in place.

[John Decker finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   36:09
With that question we've assumed that question is about that speculative data, if it wasn't, if you're thinking of something else, please get in touch through the Q&A function or directly and we'll follow up as well.

The next question, “when might we see a restart of exploration licensing,
and what about CCS licensing in offshore New Zealand?”

[Kylie Smeaton begins speaking]

Kylie Smeaton   36:32
John's already touched on this. If we're talking about petroleum exploration licensing, then the Bill is currently in the House and we're looking to be able to accept applications for that in or around September depending on the progression of the Bill. CCS or CCUS carbon capture utilisation and storage, there's some work currently being done within MBIE on that, so the policy work around that is not currently sitting within the resources branch, but there is some work that being done within the energy branch on that. Don’t have an update at this point, but we'll be able to find out some more information for you on that and advise accordingly.

You can sign up to our Regulator's Update, I think we had an update in that, either the last one or previously we had a bit of an update on carbon capture utilisation storage in there. I recommend that's probably a good way to stay up to date, and it also provides a mechanism to reach out to us for more information if you have specific questions.

[Kylie Smeaton finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   37:30

The next question is, “What work are NZP&M undertaking to promote New Zealand as a destination for investment?

That's a great question and I'll start. We've covered a lot on the webinar already, but I'll start with what the Government is doing and then a little bit about what NZP&M directly what we are doing as MBIE.

In addition to the many changes we've covered on the webinar, like Fast-track and repealing the ban and changing our approach to how we run the programmes, which would of course benefit the development of the Petroleum-Minerals sector, there's also a change in the CMA to reintroduce that word promote, and this is a really clear signal from the government that it wants to increase promotion and support to those sectors and it also enables the Government and those amendments to the CMA that are going through, to set a Government policy statement ahead and that enables the Government to be really clear on its priorities and focus areas within the Crown Minerals area as well. There’s a few more tools available to promote this sector particularly.

More generally, the Coalition Government has made it a priority to increase investment in New Zealand, and that a lot of those measures are going to be really important as well in this resources space. The launch of the minerals strategy for New Zealand and the critical minerals list and the goal in that strategy of doubling exports, reflects the government's ambition around promoting New Zealand as well.

Now, more recently, I think many of you will have seen, it's certainly been in the media, the Budget 2025 announcement of $200 million tagged contingency fund over four years and that's for up to 15% co-investment in new gas fields. Now this of course, as has been highlighted in the announcement, is subject to a Government approved business case.

Now the Government is doing a few other things that are not just about the gas fields. For example, establishing the investment boost tax incentive and that investment boost again, Budget 25 initiative is a new tax incentive and that means that New Zealand businesses, not just in this sector but more generally, can invest in productive assets, whether that's machinery, tools, equipment, those sorts of things, and deduct 20% of that new assets value from that year's taxable income on top of normal depreciation. That applies from the 22 May 2025. Companies in this area can claim that investment boost and the standard depreciation deduction. 

I'd also like to highlight some other changes that really act to promote the sector and boost investment. So, for example, there's Overseas Investment Act changes that are coming through and so the 2025 changes there encourage foreign investment whilst also protecting national interests. They retain that framework. But what they do is shift the Act’s focus that emphasises economic benefits, and it replaces the presumption that foreign investment is a privilege.

Most applications with some exclusions will now be processed within 15 days, and there's also a change to the investor benefit test under the Overseas Investment Act as well, which gives more clarity and supports greater speed in decision making as well. More directly at NZP&M as well as those changes, the Government has made, we do have a team that's dedicated to what is essentially business development activities to promote investment in market opportunities in the P&M sector in New Zealand.

This small team in NZP&M works in partnership with NZTE and also with the new Invest NZ that's being set up as, well as with participants in the sector and with other organisations, trade associations for example and in fact, right now our team from NZP&M are over in Singapore with the Minister of Resources at the APAC event, which is run by the Energy Council. This is a really fantastic opportunity to promote the sector offshore. What this team does is make sure that people are aware of the market opportunity and answer some of the questions, like the things we're covering in the webinar today, make sure people understand the regulatory requirements and the opportunity and the settings that exist in New Zealand in order to make those investment decisions.

If you aren’t already working with our team, you can get in touch with us.
There'll be contact details at the end of this webinar and our team can signpost investors, existing or new participants, to other Government support. Obviously, we don't directly hand out support ourselves. That is not an NZP&M role, but for example NZTE on supporting export growth and opportunities for New Zealand companies or attracting offshore investment through Invest NZ, or indeed from our separate Kānoa arm at MBIE, who are more in the regional investments and commercial investments side as well. There's a range of support that's available. Taking that balanced view and signposting where appropriate to other support that's available to grow the sector as well. That's what we're doing to promote the opportunity.

The next question “I'd like to know what has caused the holdup of the oil and gas ban reversal” and I think we've covered this at a high level already in the webinar around the progress of the Crown Minerals Act Amendment Bill through Parliament. But just to reiterate the Government wanted to ensure the right balance between obligations on participants and on the Crown, and this has meant new drafting of what are complex provisions so that they are right. They want to make sure they're right and aligned with best practice. The intent now is that those amendments will be passed in the in the coming weeks and be in place in time for that September opening up of the OMA process, as well as discussed by John earlier. I hope that answers that question around what has been the hold up. It's that particular issue and we're now working it through and hope that that will be resolved shortly.

The next question “What's the timeline for the first LNG imports into New Zealand?
Well, this is a great question, but this work doesn't sit within NZP&M it sits with our colleagues in the Energy branch of MBIE. We have had a talk with them, however, to answer that question and the response here is that the Government is committed to removing regulatory barriers to investment to an LNG import facility. That’s really the Government lead. Industry have been leading work into the technical and commercial feasibility of LNG imports and that industry side is probably best placed to advise on timing of particular commercial investments rather than the Government at this stage.

The next question we have this is back to hydrogen. “Can we provide an update on the addition of hydrogen to the list of minerals for prospecting, exploration and mining permits? Also, how will this be applied to existing permits or other minerals for the minerals and/or to permit applications that are currently being processed now?” Nayana, I know you've talked a bit already about hydrogen, but could you just add particularly that last bit around what does that mean for existing permits and so on?

[Nayana Islam begins speaking]

Nayana Islam   44:23
As I outlined in the presentation, the Government has released a discussion document on the regulatory proposals to enable development of natural and orange hydrogen with one of the proposals being including hydrogen into the definition of mineral under the CMA. Once consultation closes, we will consider feedback in developing the final proposals, which will be considered by Ministers and Cabinet in the second half of this year. The final proposals will influence where the hydrogen can be added to existing permit applications. Still working through what it will mean following feedback and consultation. 

[Nayana Islam finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   45:04
Absolutely, it's a great point. This is still very much under discussion and consultation, so we really welcome input on how to make this work and make it work well, so please do submit to that discussion document process.

The next question was, “Will there be any new petroleum permits offered?” I think we've probably extensively covered that already in this webinar that but it's a slightly different approach ahead. We’re changing the allocation method rather than offering particular areas. It's now reversing so that people are asking for the areas that they are interested in. The short answer there is yes, once the ban has been lifted through the legislation.

The next question, “What support can trade associations provide, and the example provided was their Energy O trade association for exploration industry and seismic acquisition. I guess my short answer to that is it's obviously up to those bodies what support they wish to provide. But from our perspective at NZP&M, we're always happy to work with sector stakeholders, whether they're individual participants or trade associations and other representative bodies. So please, they should get in touch with us about how we might achieve this, what we can do together as well.

But trade associations play a really important role in sectors around coordination and shared efforts as well, particularly in some of these sectors where there's a lot of work that could be done together.

Another question is “Can we say more about the government co-investment I mentioned earlier at the Budget 25 announcement” and that's actually a question we've been getting quite a lot, not just through this webinar. I can provide a bit more detail on the Budget 25 announcement and if you're interested in following up with us on the detail or perhaps it's more specific to your company, please do get in touch with us directly, we can have those discussions.

The Coalition Government set aside a tagged contingency of $200 million over four years for co-investment in new gas fields. Now, a tagged contingency is set aside a budget for specific initiatives with further work is required before Cabinet agrees to appropriate the funding. That's what a tagged contingency is.

The structure of investments is still being worked through and that is subject to further cabinet consideration. But I just wanted to set out some of the indicative parameters that cabinet has agreed to date, and these are that any Crown investment will be up to 15% as a stake in the project, either through becoming a permit participant or purchasing shares in a permit participant. It would be made on a fully commercial basis, for example the Crown should participate on the same basis as other investors. It's not concessionary financing. It would target new fields, bringing gas to the domestic market, but some discussion around what new means. It would not involve The Crown becoming a permit operator. It would be limited to investment at the exploration mining stage rather than prospecting and be entered into with the aim of selling down at an appropriate time if the investment proved successful, which might, for example, enable recycling of funds into other projects or potentially return of funds to the Crown. That business case on the structure of investments will be taken back to Cabinet later this year before going ahead as well.

That is the questions that have come through beforehand. We've had a couple of questions also come through whilst we've been online.

The first of those was “Whether MBIE will be submitting on a particular Fast-track application. For example, there was an example given of the compatibility of a mining application with an offshore wind development for example, and how that's going to work.” Now what we can’t do is comment on particular applications, I think you'll be aware, but Kylie, can I ask you to just speak a little bit more from what you said earlier, to MBIE’s role in the Fast-track process on particular applications.

[Kylie Smeaton begins speaking.]

Kylie Smeaton   49:01
MBIE's role in Fast-track applications is primarily where someone is seeking a mining permit through the Fast-track process. We are what the Act refers to as administering agency and we’ll be asked by the panel convener to provide advice to the panel around that particular application for either a mining permit or for land access arrangements under the Crown Minerals Act. When it comes to seeking advice on mining projects, that may not necessarily be seeking their mining approvals through Fast-track, we may or may not be asked to provide advice or to comment on it. That would be up to the panel convener and the panel to determine whether they would like to seek our advice. That's the way Fast-track is. If we're asked to, we will, but we may or may not be asked to that, that would be up to the panel convener to determine or the Minister for Infrastructure to determine if they would like NZP&M to provide any additional information, to support the assessment of that application.

[Kylie Smeaton finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   50:05
If anyone wants to follow up any further information around Fast-track, they're really welcome to do so. If we can answer those questions after this webinar, please do get in touch around the detail.

There's a follow up question that's come through on confidentiality of data, which I might ask John to speak to in a moment. I'll just read that question out. Thank you for your answer on multi-client data. That's what we spoke to earlier, and the question is around “What level of confidence investors can have that their data sets will be secure over the 15-year confidentiality period?”

John, I'm going to take that question to you and see if you can just provide an answer, because that's not a new question around confidence of the confidentiality of data.

[John Decker begins speaking.]

John Decker   50:52
I guess that's really a question for the Information Services group in terms of what processes they have in place. They do have a lot of processes in place and like I said, I'm not in a position to speak to exactly what those settings are, but I'm sure we can get some information on that and respond on that if that's a concern.

[John Decker finishes speaking. Katherine MacNeill begins speaking.]

Katherine MacNeill   51:13
That'd be great. If there's anyone who's particularly worried about that, we can provide a kind of a general answer for public information. But if their concerns are any particular project, then get in touch and we can talk about that specifically as well.

There’s a couple of questions on timeframes for legislation that's not being run by MBIE, which we’ll need to come back to separately to make sure we give you an accurate answer on that one. So, for example, the Overseas Investment Act changes.

Because it's not our lead, I don't want to speak to that one just now on exact timeframes, but we can provide that answer after the fact as well.

Now there was also a follow up on what I spoke to around the $200 million contingency fund. “Is there any other information online other than the Minister's press release?” We can provide what I've just spoken to that will be available, we'll make sure that that I'll call it a one pager, is available with just those that basic information as well, but as I mentioned earlier, it is subject to the business case and two final cabinet decisions as well. That is something where there'll be more detail over the coming months on that one as well.

I’m just having a quick look to look through the questions, there are a couple where we might need to come back directly to provide where there's a couple of questions around whether there's any particular research we can point people to and we'll certainly provide some links and background information on that as well in our follow up communications, where that's relevant or where it's available to us as well as the information around information security.

[Slide changes to NZP&M contact options.]

Those things I think looking at it, we've covered off the main questions that have come up that we can answer during this webinar. I think if you have questions that come up after this or if you feel we haven't answered your question or as it was intended, please do feel free to follow up with us directly. You can see on the screen the contact details for us. At nzpam@mbie.govt.nz and we'll do our best to respond appropriately to those questions and make sure that general questions also go out to the wider audience as well.

That brings us to the end of the webinar. I will ask, we'd also welcome feedback on the format of these webinars. What works for you? Are these useful? Is it a good way to answer your questions and any changes that we could make so we can provide this information in an accessible way ahead?

This recording will be available as I mentioned at the beginning. If you want to go back and you missed a bit or listen again more than welcome to do that as well on our website the link will be in the follow up communications that come through.

Thank you again for your time and like to thank the panel as well and I'll give you the rest of your day back. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Thanks very much.

[Katherine MacNeill finishes speaking. Slide changes to NZP&M logo on an orange background.]