The government is prepared to gamble an undisclosed sum on a frontier energy resource in the hope of winning a share of intellectual property rights from international research.Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee told an international workshop to
The government is prepared to gamble an undisclosed sum on a frontier energy resource in the hope of winning a share of intellectual property rights from international research.
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee told an international workshop today that he hoped to announce industry partnerships to investigate New Zealand’s <gas hydrate potential> in the very near future.
The commercial benefits from hydrate extraction are yet to be unlocked, with only two short term production tests conducted internationally so far.
“If we were to say tomorrow, here’s a permit to harvest gas from our hydrate reserves, there’s no one who could do it,” Mr Brownlee said.
“We want to be active in progressing that path”.
If breakthrough research occurs in partnership with crown research institutes, the government may be able to acquire intellectual property rights in addition to royalties from subsequent resource extraction.
Mr Brownlee said that officials were working on a royalty regime for gas hydrates that “could well be different” from the conventional gas and oil model.
He told NBR that international gas hydrate research would be worth billions, and that government expenditure was needed to establish New Zealand as a leading destination for research funds.
