Gas security
Maintaining gas supply for all its current uses is vital to our energy security for the foreseeable future.
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What gas security relies on
New Zealand’s gas industry is divided into two main sectors: upstream and downstream. The upstream sector includes gas exploration, production and parts of gas processing. The downstream sector covers the remaining aspects of gas processing, along with its transmission, distribution and use by consumers.
Secure gas supplies rely on a number of features including:
- having enough gas production to meet demand
- an effective transmission and distribution system
- an effective regulatory regime
- a positive gas supply outlook
- a system to ensure safe and secure gas supplies.
A number of organisations contribute to these aims:
Security of supply
Several measures are in place to ensure that gas supply remains reliable and secure.
Gas storage
Gas storage increases the flexibility and resilience of New Zealand’s gas supply and helps to ensure gas is available when needed for electricity generation. New Zealand’s only large-scale natural gas storage facility is located in Ahuroa, where a depleted gas field has been repurposed for gas storage.
The Ahuroa gas storage facility is owned by Flexgas, a subsidiary of Clarus. It was originally commissioned by Contact Energy in 2011 and sold to Firstgas (now Clarus) in late 2017. Contact Energy retained rights to use the facility under a 15-year contract licence.
Further information on gas storage(external link) — Gas Industry Company Limited
Critical contingency management
The gas critical contingency regulatory regime is designed to manage risks to the gas network from major, unmanaged disruptions, such as a pipeline rupture. Under the regulations, a critical contingency operator is appointed to determine, manage and terminate a critical contingency event. During such an event, certain gas users must reduce their gas use to maintain sufficient gas supply and pressure in the gas network. This helps prevent prolonged network outages, which would otherwise require costly and time‑consuming processes to safely restore supply.
Critical Contingency Management(external link) — Gas Industry Company Limited
Read the Gas Governance (Critical Contingency Management) Regulations 2008(external link) — New Zealand Legislation
Scenario analysis
The Gas Industry Company (GIC) publishes regular Supply and Demand studies, which model current and future gas supply and demand scenarios and provide insights about possible pathways for the sector.
Gas supply and demand(external link) — Gas Industry Company Limited
Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
The Government is procuring liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility services to improve the security of New Zealand’s energy supply and lower electricity prices. An LNG import facility could be operational by 2027 or early 2028.
Previous studies on gas security
MBIE previously conducted studies on gas security following the 2011 outage of the Maui gas transmission pipeline.
Lessons learned from the 2011 Maui pipeline outage
Following the outage of the Maui gas transmission pipeline, the Government reviewed the occurrence to ensure lessons learned were captured and appropriate steps taken to strengthen the gas system.
Review of the Maui Pipeline Outage of October 2011 [PDF, 892 KB]
The government's report brings together the findings of a review of the performance of the contingency system, technical reports completed for the pipeline owner, and information collected on the effects of the event.
Gas Disruption Study 2014
As part of the review into the Maui pipeline outage, we commissioned an independent study into the risks of major gas supply disruptions to assess industry risk management approaches and system resilience.
Gas disruption study [PDF, 1.9 MB]
The study presented options for improving gas security and suggested issues for further consideration. It concluded that New Zealand’s gas supply system demonstrates significant resilience and unplanned interruptions are generally rectified quickly.
We released the Gas disruption study in 2014 and opened public submissions on the issues and recommendations raised in the report. We received 10 submissions.
Documents relating to consultation on the gas disruption study(external link)