New Zealand Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2025 — Offshore Petroleum Exploration Prohibition Reversed

Mechanism

The 2018 Ardern-government ban (effected by amendment to the Crown Minerals Act 1991) prohibited new offshore petroleum exploration permits beyond onshore Taranaki, effectively closing New Zealand's three principal sedimentary offshore basins — Taranaki offshore, East Coast, and Deepwater Tasman — to new entrants. The rationale was climate-commitment alignment and the "just transition" framing of the Labour government. The practical effect was that existing permit-holders (OMV, Todd Energy, NZOG, and others) could operate on existing permits but no new offshore acreage could be awarded.

The Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2025 repeals that prohibition. The key operative provisions:

1. Exploration prohibition removed — new offshore petroleum exploration permits may again be granted across all New Zealand basins, including Deepwater Tasman and East Coast basins that were never commercially developed.

2. Purpose amendment — the Crown Minerals Act's statutory purpose is rewritten from "sustainably manage" to "promote" prospecting for, exploring for, and mining of Crown-owned minerals. This is not cosmetic: the purpose clause governs how regulators must interpret and exercise their functions, and courts apply it when reviewing ministerial decisions. The shift from managing to promoting alters the decision-making default across all future permit grants and conditions.

3. Decommissioning liability discretion — the Minister of Resources gains discretion to reassign decommissioning liability to former permit holders or entities that previously held interests. This addresses the investment barrier created by the uncertainty of who bears end-of-field decommissioning costs — a disproportionate concern for high-cost deepwater assets. It is also a partial backstop for the Crown against orphan-well liability if a new entrant fails.

4. Speculative prospecting confidentiality — the period during which speculative seismic and geophysical data can be kept confidential is extended by six years. This incentivises private-risk seismic acquisition (currently suppressed because data could be made public before cost recovery).

5. Tier 3 permit — a new small-scale, non-commercial gold mining permit category reduces regulatory burden for artisanal and minor operators. Supply-chain impact is minimal.

Downstream implications

• Investment flows: Anadarko relinquished its NZ deepwater acreage after the 2018

ban. Woodside acquired some Anadarko Pacific Basin assets. The ban removal will likely trigger a new offshore licensing round; MBIE/NZPAM are expected to publish a 2026 or 2027 round.

• Taranaki basin: Most near-term activity is likely to be in Taranaki offshore

(Maui, Pohokura successors, Kupe area), where existing infrastructure reduces tie-back costs. Todd Energy, OMV NZ, and NZOG are the incumbent operators best positioned to benefit.

• East Coast and Deepwater: Speculative, longer-horizon. The confidentiality

extension is specifically designed to catalyse new geophysical data acquisition over these basins.

• Decommissioning market: The liability-discretion provision signals that the

Luxon government intends to use it actively to attract new entrants who would otherwise be deterred by orphan-well risk.

• Climate-policy context: The reversal is structurally inconsistent with NZ's

2050 net-zero statutory target under the Climate Change Response Act. The government's framing is energy security (domestic production reduces LNG import dependency) and export revenue. Legal challenge is possible but the Act is statute-level — it can only be undone by a subsequent government.

Open questions

• Timing of next offshore licensing round (MBIE/NZPAM — watch 2026 Regulator's Update)
• Whether existing permit relinquishments (Anadarko/Woodside) are recoverable or

whether new acreage nominations are required

• Scale of Chinese NOC interest in NZ deepwater — politically sensitive given

Five Eyes context

• Whether the decommissioning-liability reassignment discretion will face judicial

review on property-rights / legitimate-expectations grounds