Agreement To Use Natural Gas

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 1

Agreement To Use Natural Gas

(N'etr Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, January 17. An agreement between the New Plymouth City Council and the Governmentbacked New Zealand Pipeline Corporation for the supply of natural gas to the city is expected to be signed by the city council at a meeting on Friday.

With the exception of purely local conditions, such as the amount of gas required and the point to which the gas would be delivered, the nine undertakings involved in the proposal to utilise Kapuni's natural gas would be signing a common agreement, the New Plymouth City Council’s gas committee chairman (Cr. R. J Burkitt) said tonight. The other eight gas undertakings are at Auckland Hamilton. Hawera. Wanganui. Palmerston North, Levin, Lower Hutt and Wellington.

The government has not yet announced its plans for the utilisation of Kapuni’s natural gas, but Cr. Burkitt stressed that until the agreement to take gas had been signed by the nine undertakings, the Government would not make a decision. A firm price for the gas is quoted in the agreement under which the gas undertakings agree to take a certain amount of gas over a period of 20 years commencing early in 1968.