Taranaki faces major job losses as energy sector shifts, report shows
Tuesday, 7 April 2026
Taranaki’s energy workforce could face the loss of up to 2000 jobs if major industrial users shut down.
That stark reality was laid out in a new national report warning for the region, with the sector already under significant strain.
The Re-Energise 26 report, which combined research and industry data from across New Zealand’s energy sector, painted a bleak picture of Taranaki’s shift away from traditional energy industries.
It showed more than 1700 roles were lost between 2022 and 2025, with limited opportunities to absorb displaced workers, and warned the worst could still be ahead.
The report came after Canadian-owned Methanex recently wrote down the value of its Taranaki operations to zero, along with industry speculation it could close by the end of the year due to gas supply constraints.
Under that scenario, the report said the closure of Methanex’s Motunui plant, which uses around 40% of the country’s gas, would result in about 1357 job losses.
If Ballance Agri-Nutrients’ Kapuni plant also closed it would add a further 638 jobs, taking the total to around 2000 across the regional economy in an industry renowned for its six-figure salaries.
The impacts would extend well beyond the plants, hitting engineering firms, maintenance contractors, logistics providers and specialist technical services, cutting into the backbone of Taranaki’s industrial capability, the report said.
Unlike the gradual decline in upstream gas production, closures would trigger an immediate workforce shock, increasing the risk skilled workers would leave the region or New Zealand.
“Several factors are influencing these outcomes including declining gas field production and the Government’s 2018 decision to prohibit new offshore oil and gas exploration permits,” the report said.
“While existing permits were allowed to continue, the removal of future exploration opportunities significantly reduced investment confidence and long-term planning across the sector.”
In the absence of new discoveries, production naturally declined over time which resulted in reduced activity, fewer development projects and diminishing demand for labour, the report said.
While projects such as LNG infrastructure and new offshore renewables were being explored, they were not expected to replace jobs in the short term.
Even optimistic scenarios suggested 550-900 construction roles and 200-350 ongoing jobs fell well short of current losses.
A decision on whether an LNG terminal would proceed had yet to be made, despite speculation the proposal could be scrapped.
The report also said growth in emerging energy areas, such as hydrogen and solar, had also been limited, with only small gains in engineering and professional roles and little growth across trades, technical and support jobs.
A future gas field discovery could eventually boost employment, but the report said it could take 10-15 years before meaningful workforce demand materialised.
The report also highlighted structural challenges in the region, including limited retraining pathways and reliance on a single tertiary provider, complicating efforts to transition workers into new industries.
With no confirmed pipeline of large-scale projects capable of absorbing displaced workers, redundancies had already occurred without clear pathways into new roles.
Despite the outlook, the report said Taranaki retained a highly skilled workforce and remained well placed for future energy opportunities if they arrived in time.
The report outlined a need for a co-ordinated, industry-wide approach to retain workers and support retraining, but stopped short of identifying any solutions to offset the scale of potential job losses.