Oil drilling licenses on offer off Raglan coast

The Government’s Petroleum & Minerals Block Offer 2014 Invitation for Bids is now open and closes 25 September.

The areas offered in Block Offer 2014 include three onshore release areas and five offshore release areas. Block Offer 2014 closes at 5pm, 25 September 2014 (New Zealand time). The offshore release areas include one off the Raglan coast. This is part of Taranaki Basin Release Area 14TAR-R1 off the Raglan Coast

NZ Petroleum & Minerals say they expect to grant permits in December 2014.

There is no requirement in the offer document for the operators to have any insurance to cover a mishap. It is does say that the operators must give their  “policies in relation to avoiding, mitigating or remedying environmental hazards (or risks) associated with the types of activities proposed in the work programme. These policies should be consistent with industry best practice.” It also asks “where there has been an incident the proposed operator should demonstrate it has the ability to analyse the cause of (and its contribution to causing) the incident and to identify actions to prevent the recurrence of the same or a similar type of incident”.

Documents released to the New Zealand Green Party show that the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary, home to the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin, was part of New Zealand’s waters that has been signed off to drill for oil and gas, New Zealand’s 3 News reports.

The documents, show that the Department of Conservation had highlighted that 3,000 square kilometers overlap into the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary but the area was still signed off for drilling.

A check by Raglan man John Lawson, of the offer document revealed that the bid document requires seismic studies to be carried out. John found that the document has nothing about the effect that might have on the endangered Maui Dolphins near blocks on the east side of 14TAR-R1. Apart from a line about the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978, there is no reference to marine mammals in the bid document.

“I think primarily once you go from exploration right through to production, you’re not jeopardizing the wildlife,” said Simon Bridges, the Minister of Energy and Resources.

The co-leader of the Green Party Russel Norman accused Bridges of being happy “to kill some more”dolphins with oil exploration.

But Nick Smith, the Conservation Minister, insisted that the drilling will be taking place “nowhere near where the Maui’s live.”

“There hasn’t been a single observation of a Maui’s dolphin, and the oil and gas industry hasn’t been involved in a single Maui’s dolphin incident in Taranaki over the past 40 years, despite 23 wells being drilled,” Smith told parliament Wednesday.

The Maui’s Dolphin is the world’s rarest and the smallest; there are estimated to be just 55 adults left off New Zealand’s North Island and they are seriously threatened by fishing and disease.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on the government to do more to protect the dolphins.

“We need to be doing more to save the last 55 Maui’s dolphins, not exposing them to further risks from seismic surveying for oil exploration. The government’s failure to fully protect Maui’s dolphins from net-fishing across their range is already putting them at risk of extinction,” said Peter Hardstaff, head of campaigns at WWF.

The International Whaling Commission also said it has “extreme concern” about the decline in Maui’s dolphins.