According to the Crown Minerals website, all vacant offshore Northland and Taranaki acreage is now available for Priority In Time (PIT) applications, under which explorers can bid for acreage at any time.

Crown Minerals has also cancelled the Onshore East Coast Blocks offer it had scheduled for later this year and opened up that acreage for PIT applications.

Earlier this month Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven re-offered the Taranaki and Northland acreage to the industry, with reduced minimum work requirements, after no bids were received for the three deepwater Taranaki blocks and only two of five offshore Northland blocks were awarded – PEP 38618 and 619 to a joint venture comprising operator Origin Energy (50%) and Austrian company OMV (50%).

Commentators say this latest news means the small New Zealand exploration industry has now reached saturation point and that the government needs to consider further incentives to ensure gas fields are discovered to replace the rapidly depleting Maui field.