People

Tiwai Point is New Zealand's largest single user of electricity by a very large margin and is an integral part of the electricity market and system – employing 800 people directly with a flow-on employment profile of over three thousand jobs.

Greenwood Roche advises New Zealand's Aluminium Smelter and Pacific Aluminium on all aspects of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter electricity supply, including the 2013 and 2015 renegotiations with Meridian Energy, and the restart of the fourth potline in 2018 and subsequent COVID-19 related shutdown in 2020.

Greenwood Roche has been part of the Bathurst team on some important parts of the Buller Project, advising on land acquisition and land rights for the coal handling and preparation facility and the proposed aerial conveyor, and obtaining requisite Overseas Investment Office approvals.
 
We have also been acting jointly for Bathurst Resources and Westport Harbour on their joint arrangements for the siting, construction and operation of a coal handling facility at Westport Port.

Greenwood Roche advised Victoria University on most aspects of the transfer arrangements, including the relevant people, asset and liability transfers, extensive implementation and transitional arrangements, financial arrangements including treatment of funding contracts, specialist premises leasing and also associated joint venture arrangements and downstream acquisitions around particular research product and technology.

Greenwood Roche assisted Winstone Aggregates in relation to its acquisition of the land, including the obtaining of the consent of the Overseas Investment Office to the transaction (Winstone Aggregates is considered an ‘overseas person’ by virtue of the shareholding of its parent company Fletcher Building, which is publicly listed on both the NZX and ASX). 

About Winstone Aggregates:
 

• Winstone Aggregates forms part of the Fletcher Building group of companies. Fletcher Building is a dual listed (NZX and ASX) publicly traded building materials and construction company.  It is New Zealand’s largest publicly listed company by market capitalisation.
• Winstone Aggregates is the largest aggregate company in New Zealand with 26 locations nationwide, and extracts 4.5 million cubic metres from the ground every year for roading, building and industry.
• According to its website, Winstone Aggregates employs more than 300 people around New Zealand.
• For more information on Winstone Aggregates, please visit www.winstoneaggregates.co.nz.

Greenwood Roche assisted VINCI in respect of New Zealand aspects of the transaction, working closely with VINCI Energies’ international legal teams from Baker McKenzie (Sydney) and Bolze Associés (Paris).  Greenwood Roche is proud to have worked with VINCI and its legal team on this project.

About VINCI:
 

• VINCI Energies' is the world’s largest company in construction and related services and is listed on Euronext's Paris stock exchange and is a member of the CAC 40 index.
• According to its website, in 2013 the VINCI Group had 171,678 employees and worked on 266,000 projects in 100 countries – with VINCI Energies having around 63,000 employees in 45 countries.
• For more information on VINCI Energies, please visit www.vinci.com

Alas, with oil prices falling below US$40 per barrel for a sustained period, Mosman and its joint venture partners were forced to cancel the sale and purchase agreement.  Reportedly, the assets may still be available for purchase.
Partner Brigid McArthur and solicitors Susan Baas and Kurt McRedmond worked with Mosman on its acquisition project, including on its due diligence, sale and purchase negotiations and applications for New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals and Overseas Investment Office consents.

Partner Brigid McArthur recently acted for Ecotricity Limited on the establishment of the joint venture, by way of limited partnership, with Pioneer Generation Limited.  Pioneer owns and operates some significant renewable generation projects in the South Island.  The Ecotricity Limited Partnership is also investing in electric vehicles and associated infrastructure.
Together, Ecotricity and Pioneer are championing the case for investment in renewables and we congratulate them on their venture.  They are at the forefront of what is a growing trend away from conventional fossil fuel based technologies.  Your support can be enhanced by visiting the Ecotricity website and checking the deals on offer.  www.ecotricity.co.nz

The GTAC governs the terms of access to the high pressure North Island gas transmission pipeline systems owned by First Gas Limited, previously known as the Vector and Maui pipelines.  Access to these pipelines has since the early 2000s been governed by separate industry codes.  This separation has created operational inefficiencies particularly around capacity reservations, offtake management, gas balancing, reconciliation and liability for non‑specification gas, amongst others.  With the pipelines now under common ownership has come the opportunity for a rationalisation and reset in accordance with the Gas Act objectives.

Gas Industry Co’s sanction of the new GTAC as “materially better” than the existing codes, comes after a lengthy period of engagement, consultation and extensive debate between different sectoral levels.  The industry is presently engaged in IT systems and implementation processes.

Horizon Oil, already the holder of a 10% participating interest in the producing Maari/Manaia fields, has acquired an additional 16% interest from Todd Energy as a result of Todd’s rationalisation of its Taranaki oil and gas assets.  OMV (operator) and Cue Taranaki hold the balance.
 
Brigid and Rachel advised on the requisite Overseas Investment Office sensitive land application and the application for Ministerial consent under the Crown Minerals Act, and assisted Horizon Oil’s General Counsel with certain other closing matters.  Following the obtaining of these regulatory consents, closing was successfully completed on 31 May 2018. 
 
The Maari and Manaia fields have offered stable oil production since 2009 and stable employment opportunities for over 100 people.  As at November 2017, gross field production stood at 8,840bpd of oil.  Gross projected 2P reserves were at 21 mmbls and 2C reserves of oil at 69 mmbls, as at 30 June 2017.  Since 2017 the joint venture has been undertaking field optimisation work as part of the Maari Production Improvement Program.

On 1 May 2018 New Zealand Aluminium Smelters announced plans to restart the fourth potline at its Tiwai Point Smelter, that has been sitting idle in a low price aluminium market since 2012.
 
Greenwood Roche partner Brigid McArthur acted for NZAS on its contract with Meridian Energy for an additional 50 MW electricity hedge to enable the restart, underwriting NZAS’ spot price risk on the extra volume out to 2022.  The new contract effectively sits on top of the existing 572 MW contract for Tiwai, lasting until 2030.
 
Meridian itself supported the Tiwai arrangement with its own separate contracts with Contact Energy, Genesis Energy and Mercury.
 
The fourth potline restart is a further boon to the Southland economy, with an additional 32 skilled jobs and a further 85 tonnes of aluminium produced per day, and this from a smelter with one of the lowest carbon footprints globally.