Latest / Best of Business / Bruce Aitken: former CEO and president of Methanex voices support for Government's plan to invest more into gas

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Bruce Aitken: former CEO and president of Methanex voices support for Government's plan to invest more into gas · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: The budget has put two hundred million dollars into gas exploration.
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  Speaker 2: The money is going to be used to take a
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  Speaker 2: ten to fifteen percent commercial steak in oil fields and
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  Speaker 2: gas fields rather. Former CEO and president of method X
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  Speaker 2: Bruce Aken is with us.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Bruce, are good to have some there, good evening.
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  Speaker 2: Is it a good idea?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? I think it is. Anything that encourages exploration for
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  Speaker 3: natural gas is great. It's a real pity that the
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  Speaker 3: government has to do it, but I think there's an
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  Speaker 3: inevitability that you need to take some risk out of exploration.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously what it's going to well, the point
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  Speaker 2: of the thing is to kind of put the governments
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  Speaker 2: a bit of skin in the game and then encourage
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  Speaker 2: the investors and say we're not going to get rid
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  Speaker 2: of it because we now have money in it ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: But surely it's only the things that we have money in, right.
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  Speaker 2: Everything else is still at risk, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Yes? It is. The big issue here is maintaining the market.
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  Speaker 3: And when you back to where those plants in Taranniki
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  Speaker 3: came from. They were created to create a market for
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  Speaker 3: natural gas, and out of that then you get natural
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  Speaker 3: gas for dairy natural gas for electricity generation, natural gas
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  Speaker 3: that comes to our homes. So natural gas is an
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  Speaker 3: incredibly useful product. You know, the rest of the world
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  Speaker 3: is meeting their climate change challenges by getting out of
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  Speaker 3: coal and internatural gas. What we've done in New Zeand
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  Speaker 3: is exactly the opposite. We've put a big dampner on
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  Speaker 3: natural gas exploration and importing record quanities of coal to
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  Speaker 3: keep the lights on over winter. So it makes zero
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  Speaker 3: sense what has happened over the last five years.
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  Speaker 2: Would two hundred million dollars be enough because I would
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  Speaker 2: have imagine that would be just enough to buy a ten
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  Speaker 2: percent steak in perhaps one exploration, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not a lot of money in that industry,
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  Speaker 3: and it could well be it's too little, too late,
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  Speaker 3: But I think at least it's an effort to try
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  Speaker 3: and address what is a I think is a desperate
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  Speaker 3: problem for our country.
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  Speaker 2: So we were talking. I was talking to somebody about
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  Speaker 2: this in the budget lock up, and they the point
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  Speaker 2: that they made is we haven't found any new gas
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  Speaker 2: in twenty years and what gas we have found has
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  Speaker 2: not turned out to be viable in terms of putting
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  Speaker 2: your money into it.
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  Speaker 3: Is that right, Well, that's not entirely true. I think
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand is gas prone. So if you've drill enough holes,
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  Speaker 3: you're going to find more gas. When you found big
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  Speaker 3: fields like Maory, like Poakura, and there are other meaningful
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  Speaker 3: fields around the Taraniki basin, there will be more gas
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  Speaker 3: out there. It's just a matter of having a well
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  Speaker 3: planned program over a number of years. And that's the
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  Speaker 3: problem with this industry. There's a very long timelines. You
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  Speaker 3: spend a lot of money and then you need a
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  Speaker 3: market for the gas at the end of it. And
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  Speaker 3: it's only when the government kind of steps in and
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  Speaker 3: takes shoulders some of that risk that perhaps you can
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  Speaker 3: tempt others back into that space.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So is this enough to tempt others back into
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  Speaker 2: the space? Is this enough to get somebody to take
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  Speaker 2: ninety percent with the government.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I guess we'll find out like it probably isn't,
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  Speaker 3: but it's better than nothing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Hey, thank you so much, Bruce, really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Bruce Acan, former CEO and president of method.
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