Shane Jones will begin a mining resurgence.

[harm_less]

The biggest issue was stopping oil exploration while NZ is still heavily dependent on gas for industry.
Until renewable electricity generation is increased, we still need to rely on oil and gas.
And yes, selling off the shares in mighty river power was a mistake but technically the government still holds 51% so don't they still have most of the influence on prices?

Oil exploration in NZ was only limping along when the Labour government brought in the ban on 'new offshore exploration'. There was and still has been drilling on existing prospects ongoing both onshore and off our coast but there has been no significant hydrocarbon finds to date, and the likelihood of new discoveries is unlikely in the foreseeable future. The reasons for this are a combination of the fact that virtually all potential geological structures have already been penetrated and/or depleted with Taranaki geology typically having small fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs that commonly are 'dry' or of low extractive potential. In light of this exploratory drilling is considered high risk and expensive due to our geographical isolation so international oil companies consider NZ as being of low potential of return on investment. There is good reason for NZ having not made any significant oil or gas finds in the last decade or more and the exploration ban all in all made little effect on the situation.

It has recently been stated that any oil or gas that was discovered in NZ would take a decade or more before it would contribute to supply, and by then the world will most likely have turned its back on hydrocarbon use as the realities of climate degradation hit home. It makes far more sense to develop renewables such as wind turbines and solar of both domestic and utility scale. The returns for capex on solar and wind is substantially greater than for hydrocarbon power generation and can be brought onstream in a matter of years. The biggest restriction to widespread development of renewable generation is the inertia created by our big generators as they structure their business and infrastructure model to best capitalise on an electricity pricing model that benefits them if supply is restricted. There is a huge amount of both solar and wind generation consented so it's now a waiting game as design and construction occur on these projects. That generation is a surety and the electricity generated is massively cheaper than from any other method.

So far as ownership of the big generators (gentailers) is concerned the existing wholesale pricing model applies no matter who is at the helm so majority government ownership just makes them complicit in the sluggish generation investment that is a large reason for the shortfalls we're now experiencing. Blaming the oil exploration ban for the situation is just another case of our current government (wrongfully) passing the buck onto the past administration as they are so prone to doing, and in the case of their support of seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight they are also pushing the likelihood of offshore wind development in that area off for at least 30 years as well as sending a negative indication to any other potential offshore wind development in our waters.