Maui gas by end of 1978?

Press, 20 July 1977, Page 10

Maui gas by end of 1978?

PA New Plymouth. Maui offshore gas and condensate field developers, Shell, BP and Todd, Ltd, are still confident of getting gas on stream by the end of next year.

This is despite the waiving of the natural gas supply date of October 1, 1978, by the Minister of Energy Resources (Mr Gair).

He said that the new target date, sometime in the first quarter of 1979, is not precise as yet. It will be known once an assessment of constructions delays has been completed. However, a spokesman for the consortium has said that providing there are adequate spells of good weather, “the end of

next year is still a reasonable objective.” Delay should not prove serious, but according to Mr Gair any further slip in the construction timetable “would have serious repercussions.” This could amount to power rationing later in 1979 if Maui gas is not available for the commissioning of the Huntly thermal power station. New Plymouth’s power station, already burning up $750,000 worth of oil a week, because it cannot get enough Kapuni gas when running at peak, will also use Maui gas. The announcement from Mr Gair comes after speculation for the past six months over whether the developers were capable of meeting the October deadline agreed upon over four years ago.