Natural Gas Corporation (NGC) has secured its largest single natural gas supply contract in Auckland with an agreement
to supply the New Zealand Sugar Company’s Chelsea refinery at Birkenhead.
The contract, which commenced on 1 December, involves the supply of over 0.7 petajoules (700,000 gigajoules) of gas per
year for two years. The annual volume equates to the average demand of approximately 26,000 households.
NGC’s General Manager Energy Trading, Mr Chris Graham, said today the agreement incorporated an innovative targeting and
monitoring regime in which NGC’s gas utilisation experts will work alongside refinery personnel to maximise energy
efficiency at the refinery.
“The target and monitoring regime is designed to identify and implement energy management improvements at the refinery
and to increase its efficiency,” he said.
Mr Graham said NGC was pleased to have been successful with its competitive tender against the incumbent supplier,
Contact Energy, attributing the success to NGC’s ability to apply high levels of customer service and technical support
to its gas supply contracts. He described the agreement as a significant strategic accomplishment in the ongoing
development of NGC’s gas supply position in the highly competitive Auckland energy market.
New Zealand Sugar Company Engineering Manager, Mr Grant Ritchie, said his company was experiencing a phase of
considerable growth and was looking for opportunities to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of operations.
NGC had made a very competitive offer and he was impressed with both the professionalism NGC had brought to discussions
and the quality of the contract management and support arrangements.
The refinery uses most of the natural gas to fire boilers to raise steam for process heating. The sugar is melted and
kept at a relatively high temperature throughout the process. The majority of the steam is used in the sugar
crystallisation process.
Contact: Keith FitzPatrick, Communications Manager, Natural Gas Corporation
PO Box 1818, Wellington. Phone: 04 – 499 0136
Mobile: 025 – 438 349