First Gas

First Gas Limited
Formerly	NGC, Vector Gas
Industry	Natural gas transmission and distribution
Headquarters	New Plymouth, New Zealand
Key people	Mark Ratcliffe (chair)
Brands	Firstgas
Number of employees	130
Website	firstgas.co.nz

First Gas Limited is a natural gas transmission and distribution company in New Zealand. First Gas's network has 2,204 km of high pressure pipelines and 4,800 km of gas distribution pipelines.^[1] Through Flex Gas, First Gas owns and operates the Ahuroa Gas Storage Facility.

History

The Natural Gas Corporation (NGC) was established by the New Zealand government to buy, process, and wholesale natural gas from the Kapuni gas field, which was discovered in 1959.^[2] NGC built the first high pressure gas transmission lines in the late 1960s, initially supplying Kapuni gas to Auckland, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Wellington. The network was expanded through the 1970s and 1980s, supporting the major expansion of the oil and gas industry at that time.^[3]

NGC was privatised in 1992.^[2] The Australian Gas Light (AGL) sold NGC to Vector Limited in 2004 and 2005. The company was again sold in 2016 to First State Funds, being renamed First Gas during the acquisition.^[4]

In 2016, First Gas purchased the Maui natural gas pipeline from Maui Development for $335 million. This is the main gas transmission pipeline in New Zealand. It is 307 km long, stretching from the Oaonui production station north of Ōpunake through to Huntly Power Station in Huntly, and carries 78% of New Zealand's onshore and offshore natural gas. At that time, ownership of Maui Development was between Shell (84%), OMV NZ (10%) and Todd Energy (6%).^[5]

In 2017, First Gas purchased the Ahuroa Gas Storage Facility from Contact Energy.

Statistics

Distribution

First Gas distribution network statistics as of 30 September 2017^[6]
Parameter	Value
Total pipeline length	4638 km
Intermediate pressure (700–2000 kPa)	177 km
Medium pressure (7–700 kPa)	4,389 km
Low pressure (<7 kPa)	72 km
Customer connections	62,669
System maximum demand	35.10 TJ/day
System gas delivered	11,733 TJ