Wellington, Dec 16 NZPA - Record crude oil prices, petrol prices and geothermal electricity generation marked New Zealand's energy trends in the September quarter this year.

Motorists paid record prices for petrol ($2.19 a litre for regular petrol) and there were record international crude oil prices ($US147 a barrel) followed by a dramatic fall, according to the Ministry of Economic Development's quarterly energy report.

It also showed domestic oil production rose to its highest level for a 12 month period.

Crude oil and condensate production of 31.4 petajoules was 11 percent lower than the previous quarter. When combined with the previous three quarters it was the highest ever.

With the expectation that the Tui field production will decline, the production level may not be beaten until the Maari field comes on line, which may not be until the June quarter of 2009.

Figures showed 50.6pj of crude oil and condensate was imported and 29.7pj exported.

Gas production followed normal seasonal variation and 45pj was produced.

The ministry said New Zealand's gas supply had a buoyant short term outlook with the Pohokura field expected to perform strongly.

Meanwhile, coal production was 21 percent lower in the September quarter than the previous quarter, but was 8 percent higher than the same quarter last year.

New Zealand produced 1195 kilotonnes of coal, 216 kilotonnes was imported and 689 kilotonnes exported.

On the electricity front the country produced a total of 11.352GWh from mainly hydro, geothermal, wind, gas and coal.

With stable lake levels, hydro generation increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the previous quarter, but was typical for recent September quarters.

It was noteworthy that the diesel-fired Whirinaki reserve generator hardly ran during the September quarter, contrasting with the record high generation in the previous quarter.

Another milestone was that with the commissioning of Mighty River Power's 100MW Kawerau plant, quarterly generation from geothermal sources topped 1000GWh for the first time -- an increase of 26 percent on the previous quarter.

Geothermal energy was expected to continue to increase its contribution with a number of large scale projects announced. New Zealand produced 2050 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents from electricity generation greenhouse gas emissions -- up 16 percent from the previous quarter due to a significant increase in generation from coal.

NZPA WGT dw nb