Tenders to be invited for additional oil reserves
Tenders to be invited for additional oil reserves
The Government is taking steps to ensure New Zealand
meets the requirement
of the International Energy Agency
to hold 90 days of oil reserves, Energy
Minister David
Parker said today.
He said the Economic Development
Ministry would invite tenders for stock
next month.
New
Zealand's current stocks are about 60 days of net oil
imports.
Additional stock requirements to achieve the
90-day target are estimated at
418,000 tonnes in calendar
2007, 302,000 tonnes in 2008, nil in 2009 and
32,000
tonnes in 2010. Stock may be in the form of crude oil or
refined
products such as petrol and diesel.
Mr Parker
said the quantities required to meet the target
were
significantly lower than earlier estimates because
of expected increases in
domestic oil production from
next year.
He said stock might be held in New Zealand or
potentially in Australia, the
United States, Britain, or
The Netherlands, subject to
government-to-government
arrangements.
Most stock over the next few years will need
to be held overseas since New
Zealand has little spare
storage capacity. Any stock held in Europe or the
United
States could be swapped with stock held closer to New
Zealand to
reduce transport costs should the stock be
required in New Zealand for a
local emergency.
Mr
Parker said the government would also meet the costs of
acquiring the
additional reserves to avoid the need to
impose a levy on sales of petrol
and diesel. Costs are
estimated at around $50m over the next three
years.
Subject to a successful tender round and
finalisation of
government-to-government arrangements,
New Zealand expects to achieve the
IEA target by the end
of this
year.
Ends