Oil giant Anadarko has been scared off by a few words from Angeline Greensill. The Waikato Times has reported that Anadarko’s NZ spokesperson Alan Seay, who last week said he would come to a marae meeting in Raglan now says he won’t come because of what Angeline said about the protest flotilla. At the community meeting in Raglan she said that it would a be a badge of honour if you were arrested in the protest. Since then she has pointed out that people don’t aim to be arrested when they protest and she has encouraged people to protest about the oil drilling in many ways including writing letters to newspapers. She is organising a marae meeting for Sunday 17th.
Protests will continue this weekend in Raglan on Saturday 16th from 11am to 1pm at Manu Bay St with a message of: Stand up for our coast/ Support the ‘Oil Free Seas’ Flotilla.
From today Friday 15th a 500 metre exclusion zone will be in place around the site of the oil well and the Liberian oil drillship, the Noble Bob Douglas is expected to be in position. Anybody aboard a vessel that breaches the zone will be liable for arrest. The oil well will be New Zealand’s first ultra deep-sea will in 1500 metres of water.
Meanwhile, MP Shane Arden has said that the reasons for the delay in answering questions about the ultra deep-sea oil drilling are, ‘complex’. He has been told by locals that the questions are simple and all points should have been considered before a license was granted. So far just one question has been answered by the EPA who have said that the reason that the application was incomplete was that, “Anadarko did not provide us with some of the annexes to the appendices as it was not required for the EPA’s assessment purposes.”
The important questions about who pays for an oil spill by a shell company with virtually no capital owned by a Cayman Island company which has hired a Liberian registered drillship have gone unanswered by the Government.