Govt ban tipped on oil, gas exploration

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to make a major announcement this morning banning any future offshore oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.

The only exploration likely to be contemplated by the new Government is onshore exploration — and even then it is expected to be limited to energy-rich Taranaki.

Ardern last night scheduled an announcement for this morning at the Beehive Theatrette for 9am.

She will make the announcement with Greens co-leader and Climate Change Minister James Shaw and New Zealand First MP and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones.

There are more than 30 existing permits for offshore oil and gas exploration and they will remain unaffected by today’s announcement.

If those permits are continued or taken up, that will mean existing exploration for more than a decade.

Ardern and the ministers are expected to outline plans for their version of a managed transition towards a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 and a goal of achieving 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2035.

The Government had already postponed any decision about lock offers this year — a competitive way by which oil and gas exploration permits have been issued for the past few years.

And Ardern personally accepted a Greenpeace petition at Parliament this month to ban all oil and gas exploration.

But some had been holding out hope that the Government would still accept bids for exploration on a caseby-case basis.

Today’s decision will put paid to those hopes.