No concerns about LPG supply in New Zealand

As concerns mount around New Zealand’s natural gas supply, chief executive of Liquigas, Albert de Geest, says LPG is readily available internationally and more could be easily imported as necessary.

He says New Zealand used to be more than self-sufficient in domestically-sourced LPG – as a byproduct of natural gas production. In fact, 10 to 15 years ago, New Zealand was exporting up to 90,000 tonnes per year.

But currently New Zealand is importing about a third of the 190,000 to 200,000 tonnes of LPG used here annually from Australia.

“There wouldn’t be a problem importing more if required,” de Geest says.

“We haven’t made any significant exports in the last few years and in the last couple of years we’ve dropped into imports, although a big chunk of the imports in the last 12 months have been because of [planned] field shutdowns.”

Currently, as all domestic production of LPG is in Taranaki, this is first used to meet North Island demand, and the balance is shipped in bulk to the South Island.

Around 344 million tonnes of LPG is produced annually worldwide, and New Zealand only uses around 200,000 tonnes or less than a tenth of one percent.

Currently all imports of LPG to New Zealand come from Australia.

And from a South Island perspective, it makes no difference whether the shipment of LPG comes from Australia or from the North Island, apart from the longer turnaround time to and from Australia, de Geest says.

If ever necessary to import LPG to meet demand in the North Island, this would go through Port Taranaki which is already set up for it.