On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:39:06 -0600, Tony <lizandtony at orcon dot net
Post by Tonyhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12296397
Always a pity to see companies fail with the consequential loss of jobs and
often money wasted.
But, it should remind us that there is no guaranteed way of avoiding energy
from oil and gas, at least not yet. Perhaps the real solution is Fusion power
when it is perfected; safe and low byproduct electricity.
Meanwhile we need to keep prospecting for oil and gas.
I don't think the company liquidation has much to do with our
continuing need for some oil and gas. Despite moving towards more
elecricity use, overall demand for electricity has been flat (covered
in teh article), so it is not surprising that they have not found
recent sales in New Zealand. The other issue identified in the article
is the rise of large international companies as competitors; with
increasing Nationalism in the UK, USA and some other countries, the
prospect of international sales must also be lower.
There is certainly some nimbyism regarding placement of new wind
turbines, but they are likely to be used more as demand for cheap
electricity rises.
There are still quite a few companies who have permission to prospect
for oil and gas, but one company recently folded - demonstrating the
weak contract they had enjoyed by leaving the taxpayers with a large
potential clean-up cost. Part of the reason for stopping new licenses
was that the price being offered in tenders was going down - oil
companies were realising that the most favourable fields had already
been explored, that avoiding spills was becoming more expensive, and
that the world is moving towards lower use of oil. In time we can
expect oil prices to rise; there are some areas where it will be take
a long time to develop alternatives to oil, and cheap sources are
running out. In time therefore prices may make prospecting attractive
again, but in the meantime the marke was not prepared to pay enough to
our government to make issuing more licenses desirable - and given the
recent event we can hope that any new contracts require significant
deposits to cover clean-up costs.