Company chief executive Murray Jackson said Genesis had six final applicants for its Request for Qualifications and was evaluating the submissions. It hoped to start due diligence before the end of the month, with a final selection and appointment before November.

He expected the chosen operator would take a 40% equity interest in Kupe licence PML 38146 from Genesis, with its stake falling to about 40%.

Jackson declined to identify the potential operators, though Austrian company OMV has publicly stated its interest in taking a controlling stake, while Kupe gas could be processed using Swift Energy's Rimu production facilities which are ideally situated in south Taranaki.

The other Kupe partner, New Zealand Oil and Gas, has also said it wants to increase its 19% stake in the field it discovered 17 years ago, though not to take a controlling interest.

Jackson said likely development costs could be about $NZ203 million, with first gas ashore by 2007.

Genesis was still awaiting a response from the government, which in April said it wanted to sell its 11% "free carry" interest to Genesis.

Jackson added that another major discovery was needed after Pohokura and Kupe to satisfy forecast increasing energy usage, particularly in thermal electricity. This did not even take into account whether Methanex would still be in the country, wanting gas for at least one of its Taranaki methanol trains.

The Kupe field is New Zealand's second largest undeveloped petroleum resource after Pohokura and has probable reserves of approximately 290 Petajoules of gas and 16 million barrels of liquids.