STEAM AND GAS TO TAKE POWER LOAD

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33487, 19 March 1974, Page 16

STEAM AND GAS TO TAKE POWER LOAD

New Zealand's demand for electricity is expected to double in the next nine years, and the country’s neglected geothermal resources and newly-found natural gas will be able to step in and take the load, says an article in the February issue of “The Petroleum Economist.”

Last year, hydro genera-, ntion of . electricity totalled 12,970 million kilowatt' hours, compared with only; 2224- million kilowatt hours! generated by the country’s! ■coal and oil-fired stations,: the magazine says. It is conservatively estimated that at least 100 mega-‘ watts of. electricity is avail--able from geothermal fields! along the Taupo volcanic! zone in the North Island, but < development of geothermal ;■ power has been “negligible”!; 'since about 1958. The Maui gas-condensate! l field discovered in 1969 byp Shell, BP and Todd is still 1 undeveloped, because of] three years of negotiations' over price and Government;! participation. ii However, agreement was J reached in April last year,! and the gas will be used to! fuel four power stations with; a total generating capacity |1 of 4000 megawatts. '< The New Zealand Electri-J city Department will build the stations at a cost of t ;$797m, with two at Auck- 1 ‘land, one at Huntly. and one < at New Plymouth, the maga- 1 izine says. 1 The four stations will pro-;i duce as much electricty as !

•was used in 1972: 13,122; I million kilowatt hours. The development of Maui will cost 8171 m. and a 245qmile transmission line from; ; Opunake to Auckland will, cost $96.6m. Recoverable reserves at Maui are given as four to 'six billion cubic feet, the 1 gas having an 81 per cent; 'methane content compared' .with the 42 per cent methane content of Kapuni gas. Con-! densate recovery is ex-! pected to be about 30 to 35. barrels for every million cubic feet of gas. which sug- : gests about 20,000 barrels a day initially, and another i 10,000 barrels a day, later. The condensate will be shipped to the Whangarei; refinery, which is to be ex-1 panded to a capacity of) 140,000 barrels a day by late 11975, the magazine says. By late 1978, Maui and; Kapuni condensate could' account for 17 per cent ofj ,the refinery’s intake.’ ' Kapuni’s reserves, dis-u covered in 1959, were origi-j. nally put at 250,000 million; cubic feet of gas and 25 mil-) lion barrels of condensate, ii But in 1972 this estimate was!l ■ increased by 84 per cent. i Kapuni gas has been sup- <

bplying North Island consumers since 1970, and by i 1972 the condensate output ■ was about 2700 barrels a i day. Until the Maui gas is i available, the Kapuni field will supply the New Plymouth power station. On oil supplies, the article -isays that New Zealand imports most of her crude oil from the Middle East, with Kuwait supplying 60 per cent, Iran 20 per cent. and. 'Saudi Arabia 4 per cent. Imports of crude and refinery feedstock during 1972 I were 2.7 million tons, and refined product imports were 210.7 million gallons. The only product exported from the Whangarei refinery jat Marsden Point was 42.7 Imillion gallons of residual' 'fuel oil. The Australian publication, “Petroleum Gazette,”! says that in the 1972-73 year! Australian exports to New’ Zealand comprised 107.15 !million gallons, including ,11.28 million gallons of icrude, 321,000 gallons of aviation gasoline, 26.3 million gallons of motor spirit, 19.1 million gallons of aviaition turbine fuel. 6.7 milllion gallons of lighting kero-i sene, and 12 million gallons' lof lubricants.