“The Marsden Point Fuel Refinery was crucial for our energy security and national self sufficiency. We will reopen Marsden Point to put our nation first before the commercial interests of multinational corporations.”
NZ First will re-open the Marsden Point Oil Refinery closed after this government refused to buy it from its private owners
11 Wednesday Oct 2023
Posted in Uncategorized
YEA RIGHT!
Firstly, the refinery refined imported ‘sour’ crude from the Middle East – it could only process up to 5% of NZ’s ‘sweet light’ crude so it didn’t give NZ any real security of supply – 1 tanker a week would arrive for refining. That was sufficient for around half of NZ’s needs. The other half was imported as refined product – now it all is imported as refined product. Secondly, it would need to be bought from the owners – not a great start after campaigning to reduce Gov’t spending. Thirdly, I understand that critical parts of the plant have already been dismantled and decommissioned. It would need considerable rebuilding with even more cost. What is a smarter thing to do is to re-open oil and gas exploration and when a decent sized discovery is made, build a new refinery proximate to the discovery and build a new one that actually processes home grown crude into refined products.
Either way NZ needs a refinery. Start recommissioning Marsden point is a no brainer and if we do find a huge oil reserve (Off the East Coast of the North Island) My son did all the seismic surveying out there and he said that the field they found is bigger than the North Sea fields.
Correct – the sub-surface structures they have observed have the capacity to hold as much if not more than the biggest North Sea finds – correct. N Z was the poster-child for new offshore exploration when I came ‘home’ after 18 years abroad working as a lawyer in the oil and gas industry. The 2012 petroleum conference was a buzz with over 500 delegates from all around the world and all the big companies represented. That seismic testing was to be followed by drilling and NZ was on the cusp of a nation changing discovery – it was exciting for all of us. Then the Gov’t banned oil and gas exploration – NZ First willingly traded the nation’s prosperity for waka jumping. Here’s an op-ed I wrote at the time https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103389522/the-real-cost-of-closing-down-oil-and-gas