Andrew Dickens: Gas rationing and transition schemes

Thirty years ago, I was the station manager and breakfast announcer at a very small experimental talk station in Auckland called ‘The Point’ on 1476 AM. It lasted for about three years. It was a lot of fun. Now I mention this because I clearly remember 30 years ago a morning when we discussed what happens to New Zealand when the Maui and Kapuni gas runs out, because even then scientists were warning that supplies were limited and they were dwindling. That was 30 years ago, and the alarm bells were already ringing.

David Farrar: Hipkins wants to ban gas exploration despite gas shortage

The Herald reports:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has written to Labour leader Chris Hipkins urging him to commit his party to supporting offshore exploration for natural gas for at least the next 10 years, in an effort to achieve a “credible, bipartisan approach”.

But Hipkins has called it a “political stunt rather than a genuine attempt at building bipartisan consensus”.

Kerre Woodham: Gas - what are the options? What are the alternatives?

Shane Jones' warning was clear and concise. As of 2029, if no new gas fields are found or an alternative energy source is not found, there will be no gas available for industrial, commercial, and domestic use.

“In simple terms, what's going to happen in 2029-2030 in the event that we either don't import gas, or we don't find a major find, is that the demand will still be there, but the supply will be below the demand. And there'll be a fraction of gas available, but for those big users, and quite frankly, the energy companies use quite a lot of gas and they can pay because they hand it on to you and I, that's what the crisis will be. There will be too many businesses in New Zealand still dependent on gas and the supply of the gas will be below their need for gas.”