Early Talks On Gas Cost Urged

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30887, 21 October 1965, Page 3

Early Talks On Gas Cost Urged

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Oct. 20

An inter-departmental committee on the use of Kapuni gas considered that negotiations should begin urgently with the. oil companies to establish the cost of exploiting both the condensate and the gas resources and the price which should be offered for the gas, the Minister of Mines and Electricity (Mr Shand) said in Parliament today.

Mr W. A. Sheat (Govt.. Egmont) had asked if the report of the committee appointed to consider the implementation of recommendations in the Shattuck report had been handed to the Government on September 28 and, if so, if it would be made public at an early date.

Mr Shand said an interim report had been presented on September 28. “The report is not in a form, nor of a kind, which should be made public but I can say . . . that the committee recommended to the Government that the two Shattuck reports and the reserves report of De Golyer and MacNaughton as a basis for negotiation for the further exploitation of the Kapuni natural gas and condensate resources,” Mr Shand said. “The committee considered that negotiations should begin urgently with the bil companies to establish the cost of exploiting both the condensate and the gas resources and the price which should be offered for the gas. “The Government’s consultant, Mr J. G. Shattuck, of Zinder International, Ltd., has been invited to return to New Zealand to assist in these negotiations. Mr Shattuck will be ready to begin his work early in November.

“The committee also dealt with the matter of drilling a further bole at Kapuni,” Mr Shand said.