New Zealand will hold its 2026 General Election on 7 November, prime minister Christopher Luxon announced on 21 January, marking the start of a campaign season in which parties may debate gas exploration bans.
New Zealand's conservative, National Party-led coalition overturned a 2018 ban on offshore oil and gas exploration in September 2025, after campaigning on the issue at the 2023 election.
The government removed the ban to deal with the energy security challenges posed by rapidly declining natural gas reserves, New Zealand's resources minister Shane Jones said in June 2024, when announcing plans to overturn the ban.
The centre-left Labour Party that introduced the ban has pledged to reinstate it and focus on renewable energy projects if elected.
The Labour Party is opposed to the removal of the ban on new oil and gas exploration offshore and would reinstate it again, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said in a radio interview with Newstalk ZB on 27 August 2025.
Labour's potential governing partners — the left-leaning Green Party and indigenous rights-focused Te Pāti Māori — have similarly opposed the restart of oil and gas exploration.
"A Green Government will reinstate the oil and gas ban and revoke any permits granted under the current fossil fuel-obsessed regime," Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said on 24 September 2025.
"Te Pāti Māori believes that the only way forward is to ban seabed mining permits nationwide, withdraw existing permits and introduce a national Māori strategy for renewable energy," Te Pāti Māori's co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said on 25 September 2025.
New Zealand's electoral system favours coalition governments, and a single-party government has only occurred once since 1996. The Labour party led a majority government in 2020-23.
New Zealand's gas output fell on the year for the eighth straight quarter in July-September 2025, the latest data from the country's ministry of business, innovation, and employment show. New Zealand's gas-fired generation fell over the same period, but industrial gas use rose because of the restart of Canadian menthol producer Methanex's 1.7mn t/yr Motunui plant.
New Zealand's gas supply reached 115.7PJ (3.1bn m³) in 2024, down by 21pc from 2023, because of natural field declines. Methanol producer Methanex idled its plants in Motunui for several months in August-October 2024 because of gas supply issues.
