Oil consumption fell 2 p.c. last year

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 6

Oil consumption fell 2 p.c. last year

PA 1 Wellington! Total petroleum con-' sumption in New Zealand ■last year fell by 2 per cent,] ;acccHiiing to the annual rejport of the Ministry of! lEnergv Resources tabled ini ''Parliament yesterday. ] The main reason for the ■ • decrea t e was a 43 per cent ■ ireduct»sn in power station! Ifuel-oiS consumption because] i untreated Kapuni natural] •gas hat! been used at the] New Plymouth and Stratford power stations for the whole! year, said the report. Fael-oil consumption fell] by 8 pet' cent in 1977 while I diesel co nsumption rose by 7! !pv cent. Petrol consumption' increated by 2 per cent. The xqoort said that the I ] energy price increases re-' suiting A r om the imple-f’ mentation of the Government’s en« policy had largely taken effect by August, 1577JL At March 31, 1978, industrial natural-fas prices averaged 75 per pent of those of fuel oil compared with the ] taretet of 85 pet cent, it said. This had been brought about bv the application of ( the sale tax or 1.5 c a litre, ion fuel oil in thy 1977 Bud-' ■ get. Also at March 31, coal ■ prices for a large industrial I ■user were 60 pet cent of I .those of fuel oil compared jwith the target of 68 per I cent after allowing for | efficiency differences and I higher plant and handling | costs associated with using | coal. The report said they during 1977-78 a total of S32M was collected under the Energy Resources Levy Act comnared with the estimate r of S2BM. The actual collection had ■ been higher than estimated me rilv because of unexpectedly high gas consumption

tby the Electricity Department because of low lake levels. Of electricity, the report .said that at the 1977 meeting of the Committee to Review Power Requirements, the Ministry had joined the ! Treasury and the Department of Statistics in a mi- . nority report which pro- ] posed a lower growth for [electricity generation in the inext 15 years. The increase estimated for 1977-78 was 4,6 per cent i compared with 5.6 per cent in the majority’s forecast, it said. The actua' increase had ibeen 1.9 per cent, or |?I.3O2GWh (provisional). “Present indications are ; that the growth in electricity use could be even [slower than forecast in the

minority report for the plan-] ning period.” said the report. ! It said that coal produc-i tion in 1977-78 was 2.16M1 tonnes, a decrease of 308,000] • tonnes over 1976-77. However, in spite of this reduction, coal had been more readily available because of reduced demand for coal for electricity generation and increased production from private mines in the South Islanl. Of energy demand, the report said there was an immediate need for a reduction in New Zealand’s expected oil-import bill. As a longer-term objective there was a need to hold or reduce growth rates for all i forms of energy by improving the efficiency of energy i use and reducing waste.