Let us test say oil, gas explorers
A group representing the oil exploration industry says the opening up of new exploration areas near Lake Te Anau and a Maui’s dolphin sanctuary is not to be feared.
The two areas are part of the Government’s annual block offer to oil and gas companies who want to tender for exploration rights.
Green Party energy spokesman Gareth Hughes said tourists heading to Milford Sound would be ‘‘horrified’’ by the Government’s decision to allow fossil fuel exploration in that part of the country.
But Cameron Madgwick, chief executive of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association, said the permits were for testing only.
‘‘There’s a long way to go between a block offer announcing an area of land [and] any activity occurring,’’ Madgwick said.
‘‘And then, should activity occur, that local residents can be assured that the industry takes the environment and its impact very seriously.’’
Oil and gas exploration tenders are handled by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals under the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
National manager of petroleum Josh Adams confirmed the block did come up to Lake Te Anau at its southern end.
If a company was awarded the permit, he thought there was a very low chance it would conduct seismic tests near the township, ‘‘let alone up to the water’’.
Getting permission to drill was another process again, and success rates were low.
But a find of natural gas in an area of high coal use was potentially a good thing for local heating needs and air quality, he said.
The western Southland block covers just over 3600 square kilometres stretching from north of Te Anau to the south, and southeast towards Invercargill.
Although there has long been talk about exploring off Southland’s coast, it is the first time that inland western Southland has been offered to energy explorers.
This year’s block offer has opened up 481,735sqkm across the country for permits near Northland, Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, the lower North Island and the Great Southern basin, off Oamaru.
One of those blocks encroaches on a Taranaki marine sanctuary which protects the last remaining Maui’s dolphins.
‘‘There are only 63 Maui’s dolphins alive and drilling for oil and gas in the area that’s supposed to be their sanctuary puts every one of them at risk,’’ Hughes said.
However, Madgwick said there were already oil and gas facilities within the sanctuary area.
‘‘The suggestion made by some that the surveys we undertake in the sea have detrimental impacts on Maui dolphins … unfortunately don’t accord with the science.’’
Asked whether Te Anau residents should be concerned, Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins emphasised that no exploration was allowed anywhere near a national park or World Heritage Area. To Southland, ‘‘petroleum development offers significant potential for economic growth’’, she said.