EPA tries to stall oil boat leaving

The Environmental Protection Authority is trying to stop a floating oil production facility leaving the oil fields off the Taranaki coast while terms for its exit are still being decided.

But the owners of the Umuroa, a production, storage and offloading ship, say the authority (EPA) approved the terms in a 2017 decision, and it should be allowed to go. However it’s unclear whether the Umuroa and its crew are stuck in the coronavirus lockdown, like most everything else.

A judge from the High Court in Wellington heard an urgent application via a telephone conference yesterday, in which the EPA was trying to stop the Umuroa uncoupling from pipes and lines connected to the undersea drilling operation.

The pipes would be capped and then laid on the sea floor, which the EPA says carries a risk of discharge or contamination.

And local iwi were clear they did not want the environment damaged, the EPA’s lawyer, Ian Carter said. The pipework does not belong to BW Offshore which operates the Umuroa, but the company that does own them,

Tamarind Taranaki Limited, is insolvent, and now defunct.

BW Offshore says it has to act soon to do the work needed to exit the field before winter.

The EPA issued abatement notices to stop the work in the meantime, but BW Offshore obtained orders from the Environment Court stopping the effect of the abatement notices.

That prompted the EPA to go to the High Court to appeal against the Environment Court’s decision and ask for an interm order for the Environment Court’s decision not to take effect pending the appeal hearing.

Justice Francis Cooke reserved his decision.

BW Offshore says a decision is needed urgently but Carter, for the EPA, told the judge that the EPA was sceptical about the need for urgency for a number of reasons, including the Coronavirus lockdown, and that the work to disengage the Umuroa can’t start again until the end of April.

Carter said BW Offshore was asking for the work to be declared an essential service.

BW Offshore’s lawyer, Matt Conway, said the company was attempting to resolve the lockdown issue so that a new crew could join the ship and continue the work.