Other fuels ‘neglected’

Press, 12 February 1982, Page 4

Other fuels ‘neglected’

PA Wellington I Alternative fuels are being neglected while the Government will today ' risk the public’s money by signing the Motunui synthetic petrol plant contract according to

the Shadow Minister of Energy, Mr R. J. Tizard. The Government was subsidising the experiments of Mobil in supporting the Motunui plant, when it should be aggressively promoting alternative fuels.. such as compressed natural gas, he said.

Labour believed that the cost, size, and timing of the synthetic petrol programme should be re-examined, and the plant could cost six times the figure originally given. More direct use should be made of Maui gas.

But because the C.N.G. conversion programme was running about 18 months late, the go-ahead for synthetic petrol lessened the incentive to convert to alternative fuels.

The energy efficiency of C.N.G. was much greater than synthetic petrol, he said. But by supplying one-third of New Zealand’s transport fuels, synthetic petrol had ensured an oil-based energy future for this country. The final price of synthetic fuel might have to be subsidised by the taxpayer. “There have been guarantees that synthetic petrol will be no dearer than imported refined petrol. But the cost of producing synthetic petrol may be more than importing crude, especially if the real price of crude remains static and the synthetic petrol plant faces cost overruns,” Mr Tizard said. The Government was speeding up the synthetic fuel option and the related Marsen Point refinery expansion with needless haste

at the expense of alternatives, particularly. C.N.G., he said.

The Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) said yesterday that Mr Tizard had brought out nothing new about synthetic petrol. “It again demonstrates the Labour Party’s lack of a coordinated energy policy, a lack which the voter saw in November last year,” he said.

Mr Tizard’s arguments against the synthetic petrol plant did not stand up to close scrutiny, “and I have previously answered the points raised on several occasions.

“The annual production of 600,000 tonnes of petrol a year from the plant will help to lift New Zealand to selfsufficiency in liquid fuels from 10 per cent to the Government’s objective of 50 per cent by the end of this decade. No other course open to us will achieve this objective so quickly,” Mr Birch said.

Any proposal not to proceed with the project would be a serious error. “To propose, as Mr Tizard has, that the project be abandoned shows a lack of understanding of New Zealand’s critical energy supply and demand balance. “The estimated cost of the synthetic petrol plant — $767 million (in 1980 dollars) — is based on firm bids received. Inflation will increase this price, but it will also increase the benefits to New Zealand,” Mr Birch said. He was surprised that Mr Tizard had released such an “ill-advised statement.”