The government announced on Wednesday 11 July that oil and gas exploration permits for four areas of the Great South Basin (in the southern oceans off Southland) had been awarded to two major groups of investors. A further announcement was made on Thursday 26 June that a third party (Greymouth Petroleum Ltd) had also been successful in securing a permit. The three permit holders are:

• A consortium led by ExxonMobil New Zealand (Exploration) Limited (USA) which includes local company Todd Exploration Limited (New Zealand)
  
• A consortium led by OMV New Zealand Limited (Austria) which includes PTTEP Offshore Investment Company Ltd (Thailand), Mitsui Exploration and Production Australia Pty Ltd (Japan)
  
• Greymouth Petroleum Limited (New Zealand)

Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven said the interest of major international oil companies indicated the high potential of the basin.

The Great South Basin lies offshore from the coast of Southland and South Otago, and at over 500,000 sq km is one of New Zealand’s largest petroleum basins (covering an area 1.5 times New Zealand’s land mass). The current area of awarded permits covers 18% of the basin.

The basin has only been very lightly explored, so until recently, little has been known about the geology and prospectivity of the basin.

Recent data indicates that the Great South Basin may have the greatest petroleum volume potential of all New Zealand’s basins. In particular it has the thick sediments required to produce hydrocarbons, favourable reservoir and source rocks, and is not affected by large scale seismic faulting found in most New Zealand basins.