An Australian firm incorporated weeks before New Zealand's offshore oil and gas ban ended will have its application for an exploration permit considered uncontested.
By Kate Newton of RNZ
EnZed Energy is the first company to apply for a petroleum exploration permit since the 2018 ban, which was overturned by the Government last year.
It applied for a block off the coast of Taranaki last October, triggering a three-month competitive process where other companies could also apply to explore in the same area.
However, the competitive window closed at 5pm on Friday with no other applicants published on the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) website.
Despite the lack of competitors, the permit is not guaranteed. MBIE confirmed it would now complete a full assessment of the application, which would include the work programme EnZed Energy submitted, along with the company's technical and financial capability, its compliance history and its ability to meet health and safety and environmental requirements.
MBIE would also consult with other relevant government agencies, such as the Department of Conservation, and mana whenua.
Resource markets general manager Katherine MacNeill said there was no legal timeframe, but MBIE expected the process to take about six months.
A fast-tracked seabed mining application in a similar area, off the coast of Pātea and Hawera, has been strenuously opposed by some locals, including Te Runanga O Ngāti Ruanui.
The block EnZed Energy was interested in also significantly overlaps with the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary, which prohibited seismic surveying in almost all circumstances.
However, the work programme submitted by the company said it would reinterpret the data from previous seismic surveys in the area, with no new surveying planned.
Resources Minister Shane Jones said last year that overturning the offshore ban was necessary to shore up the country's medium-term energy security.
But the reversal was condemned by climate advocates, and energy resources experts and even gentailers have warned a large new find is unlikely.
University of Waikato law professor Barry Barton, who specialised in energy and natural resources law, said even if EnZed Energy was granted a permit, it could be years before any explorative drilling happened – if at all.
"Quite often the first couple of years is desk work, analysis, reinterpretation, and that's what the company is offering here – to take existing seismic work and reevaluate it.
"That would then lead to a decision about whether they're actually going to drill an exploration well."
Even if the company found something, there was no guarantee they would pursue it, Barton said.
"Bringing an offshore drilling rig to New Zealand is hideously expensive, so that may or may not happen."
In recent decades, contending with New Zealand's geology had not been "terribly attractive" to many companies, he said.
"The oil and gas ban obviously would not have helped, but the fact that the ban has been lifted doesn't necessarily mean that the geological circumstances have changed."
A permit for part of the area was surrendered in 2016 after the permit-holders decided it was uneconomic to proceed.
There could be other reasons why no other companies had expressed interest, Barton said.
"It's also possible that companies could be waiting for the gas security fund that the Government has announced to kick in."
The $200 million "co-investment" fund, which was announced in last year's Budget and extended in November to include extraction of natural gas from existing fields, opened to expressions of interest this week.
The swift rise in natural gas prices, as reserves depleted faster than expected, could also make exploration more attractive, Barton said.
"There will be niches, there will be geological plays that someone spots that nobody else had noticed or nobody else had thought was worth pursuing," he said.
"It may not be on a huge scale, but you can't eliminate those possibilities completely."
EnZed Energy was registered in Australia on August 23, 2025, one month before oil and gas exploration applications were re-opened. It shared some governance, including directors, and a shared premises with Australian Carbon Vault, a carbon capture and storage (CCUS) firm.
CCUS involved capturing the carbon dioxide created during the extraction process at its source, condensing it and storing it deep underground – allowing companies to offset other emissions.
However, the Government has only recently begun developing regulations for the technology, and the only planned scheme, at Kapuni gas field, fell over last year.
EnZed Energy's work programme did not mention carbon capture.
The company did not reply to emails and phone messages from RNZ seeking comment about its plans.
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