Barry Barton

Property and the law in energy and natural resources

The law of energy and natural resources has always had a strong focus on property as one of its components, but there are relatively few comparative, book-length, treatments of both property law and energy and natural resources law. The aim of this edited collection is to explore the multiple dimensions of the contemporary relationship between property and energy and natural resources law.

Electric vehicle law and policy: a comparative analysis

Law and policy initiatives to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles are examined in an international context. The efforts of several jurisdictions to overcome barriers to a more rapid uptake of electric vehicles are examined: Norway, California, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and France. Price support is found to be essential as long as electric vehicles are more expensive than internal combustion vehicles. However the impact of fuel efficiency standards is greater than is sometimes appreciated, especially if reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security are key benefits in electric vehicles. Other measures are also examined. It is concluded that electric vehicle policy may diverge at key points from transport policy and from climate change policy. Care is needed to design laws and measures that will be effective from those different policy points of view, and that will promote social equity at the same time.

Managing potential interactions of subsurface resources

Subsurface resources include oil, gas, coal, groundwater, saline aquifer minerals, and heat (for geothermal use). Pore space itself should also be considered as a resource as it can be used for injection of waste fluids, produced water, storage of natural gas, compressed air, and supercritical CO2. Use of subsurface resources can overlap in space, and pressure changes at one site can remotely influence resource use at other sites. Resource use can also vary in time, such as the use of depleted oil or gas fields for natural gas or CO2 storage. Before allocation of a subsurface resource it is therefore useful to understand the potentially wide range of resources available in an area, how they might be developed successively, and how they could affect each other if used concurrently. While these issues are primarily geological, they have critical significance for legal, environmental, and economic considerations.

Sharing the Costs and Benefits of Energy and Resource Activity: a new book by SEERIL’s Academic Advisory Group

This article summarises research in the field of energy and natural resources law, on the subject of the sharing of costs and benefits between developer companies, governments and local communities. It addresses a new phase in the sharing of costs and benefits that is readily discerned in many countries worldwide, and which compels a shift in thinking that is centred more traditionally on environmental and resource royalty regimes.

Feasibility of Storing Carbon Dioxide on a Tectonically Active Margin: New Zealand

Screening of New Zealands sedimentary basins indicates several gigatonnes of carbon dioxide storage capacity might be available. However, carbon dioxide storage is currently untested in New Zealand, and it is likely that most theoretical storage capacity will be discounted once detailed assessments are made. New Zealands position on an active Neogene plate boundary raises additional key factors that will affect final site selection. Issues specific to New Zealands setting include: 1. rapid facies changes, syndeposition and post-depositional structural events, particularly in regions close to the plate boundary; 2. rapid subsidence and high sedimentation rates leading to overpressured reservoirs and strong water drive in some structures, which will potentially result in injectivity issues, particularly in depleted fields; 3. mineralogically immature reservoir rocks requiring assessment of injected gas-rock reactions; 4. common occurrence of faults of various scales, requiring assessments of their sealing capacity and present stress fields; and 5. distinguishing induced seismicity from common natural seismicity. Some of these risk factors will also influence the relationship between social acceptance and the design of regulations. Despite the risks, hydrocarbon-producing fields in Taranaki indicate that viable reservoir-seal pairs are likely to be present. Additionally, injection of small volumes of produced water and significant natural gas storage at the depleted Ahuroa Field have not led to noticeable induced seismicity, though large volumes expected from a carbon dioxide injection project would likely require careful site assessment for seismic risk in some areas. Natural analogue and laboratory fluid-rock experiments are investigating the effects of carbon dioxide injection on reservoir mineralogy, and some effects can now be anticipated. Currently produced gas from New Zealand locally contains significant carbon dioxide (up to 44% carbon dioxide in the Taranaki region and up to 30% in the Canterbury Basin) and if new discoveries also have a high carbon dioxide content, they may require processing before use, with disposal of carbon dioxide. Such a large gas discovery anywhere in New Zealand could, therefore, stimulate rapid deployment of CCS. It is highly likely viable storage sites exist, particularly away from the current plate boundary, though the site-specific nature of site assessment is particularly important in New Zealands geological context.