M.P. seeks release of plant documents

Press, 12 March 1982, Page 2

M.P. seeks release of plant documents

PA Wellington The Government should make public the documents dealing with the contracts for the Mobil synthetic petrol plant, said the Labour Party’s spokesman on energy, Mr D. F. Caygill, yesterday. New Zealand was about to become a “guinea pig” for the rest of the world with the first.. gas-to-gasoline plant tried commercially. Mr Caygill’s call came after the announcement on Wednesday that the plant, at Motunui, Taranaki, would proceed.. He said that the Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) had jromised to table a White 3 aper in Parliament next month summarising the contracts. That was not good enough. The Government had to realise that in spite of the final approval, much uncertainty existed in the public mind about the viability of the synthetic fuel project. Mr Caygill asked why, in view of predictions that the world oil price would not rise dramatically during the next 10 years, other countries had not rushed into synthetic fuel? He said that in addition there was uncertainty over the cost of the plant, estimated at $lBOO million, likely delays in the plant’s construction, labour shortages, and the actual performance of the plant.