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Your Excellency Michael Potts, Australia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand;

Your Excellency Peter Chan, Singapore’s High Commissioner to New Zealand.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning.

As Minister of Energy and Resources, it’s my pleasure to welcome and host you here in Parliament this morning to award permits for the Government’s second annual Block Offer.

Many of you were in Auckland earlier this year when I announced the areas available for competitive bidding in Block Offer 2013.

Good morning everyone, it’s great to be here and to have the opportunity to speak to you all.

From the discovery of the Kapuni gas field in 1959, and then the much larger Maui field in 1969, the oil and gas industry has played a significant role in New Zealand’s economic development – as an energy source for industry and households, an input into the chemicals industry and as a valuable export in its own right.

In fact, crude oil is our fourth largest export after dairy, meat and wood.  It contributes more than $2.5 billion to our GDP each year.

It’s a pleasure to be here at your conference and to have the opportunity to speak to you all.

The minerals industry has traditionally played – and continues to play – an essential role in the New Zealand economy.

Our country’s abundance of natural resources provides unique opportunities for growth that ultimately benefit all New Zealanders.

It’s a pleasure to be here at the West Coast Minerals Forum and to have the opportunity to speak to you all.

Since becoming Energy and Resources Minister in January, I have spent a lot of time talking about ‘opportunity’ – the opportunity that can be realised from developing our resource potential.

And New Zealand has never been a better place to explore.

We are recognised as one of the world’s most promising regions, but we remain relatively unexplored.

It’s a great pleasure to be speaking at this very important event for the New Zealand oil and gas industry.

As I said in my opening address last night, it’s wonderful to see so many people here, particularly our international guests. Welcome.

Already today, our Prime Minister and other key speakers have spoken much about ‘opportunity’.

In oil and gas terms, New Zealand truly is a land of opportunity.

The demand for – and exploration of – oil and gas has never been greater.

Mr Speaker; I move that the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, Conservation Amendment Bill (No 2), Continental Shelf Amendment Bill, Reserves Amendment Bill, and Wildlife Amendment Bill be now read a third time.

These changes are central to this Government’s work programme to improve the regulatory system for the petroleum and minerals sectors in New Zealand.

The Bills deliver on the objectives of the Crown minerals review to:

On behalf of the New Zealand Government, I welcome our international guests to Auckland, and to our wonderful country. It is a pleasure to have you here.

The New Zealand Government is pleased to be working with our co-hosts in the European Union, and our Summit sponsors from the World Bank, The Asian Development Bank, and AusAID, to make this important event happen.

It is very timely.

The Pacific Energy Summit is giving communities in the Pacific a platform to work with development partners to achieve their energy goals.

Thank you for the opportunity to address your annual conference.  It’s great to be here.  Your industry is an exciting one – with its challenges, and opportunities.

To get a sense of this, I am going to start by taking us all back a few years.

In 1993, New Zealand got its first wind power turbine prototype.  Over a few short years, the technology moved into the mainstream and its growth is now consistently in double digits.

Not bad in just 20 years.

Good morning and welcome everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here.

As many of you would appreciate, this is my first substantive address as Minister of Energy and Resources.

I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity, as I am quickly coming to the view that this is one of the most exciting and challenging portfolios in Government.

Let me be candid.

I don’t have the same level of expertise that many of you here have.