Andrew Dickens: The bigger problem isn't oil

The New Zealand Government has officially granted the first new offshore oil and gas exploration permit since reversing its ban, awarding it to Adelaide-based Australian explorer EnZed Energy.

EnZed Energy, an Australian start-up. So, it’s their first rodeo.

They get a 12-year petroleum exploration for a 546-square-kilometre zone in the offshore Taranaki Basin, east of the currently producing Kupe gas field.

Some have made a lot of the fact that EnZed were the only applicants, but others say that’s because the opposition are still threatening that the ban could come back which is giving explorers cold feet.

Now I have no problem with exploration, but I also have no problem with a ban.  But a ban can only happen if New Zealand has a viable replacement plan in place – when Labour introduced the ban that was not the case.

But I also know that based on the past 150 years of exploration, the chances of a commercially viable find are low.

So good on them and good luck.  

But my other takeaway is that the only people who could find the capital for this sort of work is Australian, and that shows up our basic economic weakness.  

A lack of capital for investment.  

Not just in oil and gas exploration, but for every big idea.

We don’t need to find oil or gas.

We need to find a money tree.

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