He said three un-named companies had lodged a joint bid for the southernmost block in the Deepwater Taranaki Basin - the most attractive of five blocks offered as it is nearest the existing Maui gas-condensate field and associated facilities.

Bidding closed a week ago, September 30, and a decision on the awarding of the permit is to be made within the next two months.

"While the receipt of only one application for New Zealand's first deepwater basin round is less than hoped for, realistically this has to be seen in the light of the extremely competitive deepwater exploration scene around the world," Duynhoven conceded.

"Over the last five years, global deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration and production have been centred on three premier areas - Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, particularly Angola and Nigeria, where significant oil discoveries have been made," he added.

Commentators said Crown Minerals was lucky to get that bid considering the negative signal sent by Royal Dutch Shell two months ago when it announced its virtual withdrawal from the New Zealand exploration scene.

One analyst said he would be intrigued to find out the identity of the bidders, particularly if one was already active in New Zealand.

"Somebody may be playing a very interesting game. Are they really interested in exploring the deepwater, and only about half a dozen companies in the world have that capability, or are they just interested in protection acreage, protecting what they already know are some excellent prospects? " he asked.

Possible overseas contenders could be BHP Billiton, Origin Energy or even Apache, if it has reconsidered its involvement in energy exploration across the Tasman.

Crown Minerals petroleum business manager Clyde Bennett told EnergyReview.Net that the sole bid was "not particularly positive but realistic".

"No one is diving into deepwater but wading in from the east, from the Maui and Tui fields; it's a natural progression."

Duynhoven said the block bid for was Block E, a 12,000 sqkm area with water depths of approximately 500m.

The deepwater bidding round was a partnership between Crown Minerals, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, and Norwegian firm TGS-Nopec Geophysical, whose seismic survey last year suggested potentially huge petroleum reserves.

Crown Minerals also pushed the acreage, presenting a series of seminars on the Deepwater Taranaki to international petroleum companies in Houston, London, and Singapore last year.

Crown Minerals also commissioned international petroleum consultants Wood MacKenzie to undertake a study into the comparative economics of New Zealand's deepwater fiscal terms with those of other deepwater exploration destinations, including Brazil, Gulf of Mexico, Angola and Nigeria. The results of this study show New Zealand's terms to be more favourable to an explorer than those of Brazil, Angola or Nigeria, and on a par with those of the Gulf of Mexico.

Wood MacKenzie said it did not see New Zealand's fiscal terms as a barrier to development. "In fact the reasonable fiscal regime, coupled with low country risk, may prove to be desirable to operators who are exposed in regions with high country risk who wish to balance their portfolio," the study added.

Duynhoven said it was important to note that companies involved in deepwater exploration were seeking large oil deposits rather than gas. "Deepwater exploration is unlikely to have any immediate impact on New Zealand's gas reserves," he assuaged.

The next bidding round, for nine blocks on the continental shelf offshore north Taranaki and eight onshore Taranaki blocks, closes on October 31. Duynhoven said it was these areas, located next to existing oil and gas fields and facilities, which were considered "ideally located for sizeable new oil and gas discoveries".

He had better be right or the spectre of costly LNG imports, most likely involving Shell and Western Australia, will again rise over the land of the long white cloud.