According to information released on Friday 13th December, Anadarko’s modelling assumed a spill rate of 12,000 barrels of oil every day for one well location and 18,000 barrels at another. Greenpeace’s own spill modelling report, released in October, which was called “scare-mongering” by prime minister John Key, assumed a more conservative 10,000 barrels per day.
Anadarko’s oil spill data estimates a spill would reach Raglan shores in 66.05% of cases in autumn and 51.82% in summer.
The Green Party’s energy spokesman, Gareth Hughes, said the documents showed New Zealanders had every right to be concerned about deep-sea drilling.
“A capping stack would take 33 days to get to New Zealand and a relief rig would have to come from East Africa and would take between 80 and 115 days to get here.”
Key’s claim Greenpeace had been scaremongering “was clearly ill-founded and playing politics”, Hughes said.
It was outrageous that it took so long for the documents to be released. The public should have had access to them before Anadarko started drilling, he said.
The information has only become publicly available on Friday afternoon following requests made under the Official Information Act and in Parliament. Oil companies are required to compile these documents and submit them to government. However, the information was omitted from wider documents made available in September.
The documents are also at the middle of a current High Court case. Earlier this week, lawyers for Greenpeace argued that the government’s Environmental Protection Authority made an ‘error in law’ by allowing Anadarko to go-ahead with its drilling programme without looking at these very documents, which include reports on oil spill modelling and emergency plans to deal with an oil spill.
Minister for Energy and Resources Simon Bridges has repeatedly claimed that exploratory deepwater drilling “is a highly regulated area where we put businesses like Anadarko through the wringer” [1].
Nathan Argent, chief policy advisor for Greenpeace, said: “The industry’s own data shows that oil could end up on our beaches. And there’s more than a hint that the government and the oil lobbyists colluded to keep this secret. They simply do not want the New Zealand public to know about the potential for an oil spill.
“The whole government process around deepsea oil drilling has swung between utter farce and total shambles.”
The full document release is here: http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Environmental/Environmental-requirements/Requirements-for-installations/Disharge-management-plans.asp
Or you can download parts of it as shown below.
Anadarko discharge management plan 2013-14
MNZ approved Anadarko’s discharge management plan for its 2013-2014 Canterbury Basin and Deepwater Taranaki Basin Exploration Program on Friday 15 November, 2013.
The PDFs below constitute the document in its entirety, subject to redactions allowable under the Official Information Act 1982. Where redactions have been made, the justification under the Act has been noted.
Discharge Management Plan: 2013-2104 Canterbury Basin and Taranaki Basin Exploration Program[PDF: 10.8Mb, 82 pages]
Annex A Vessel Documents [PDF: 8.19Mb, 84 pages]
Hazardous Substances MSDs [PDF:30Mb, 205 pages]
Cement MSDs [PDF: 20Mb, 177 pages]
Mud MSDs [PDF: 18.03Mb, 154 pages]
Annex B Baseline Environment [PDF: 11.66Mb, 77 pages]
Annex C Drill Cutting Dispersion Modelling[PDF: 14.35Mb, 52 pages]
Annex D Oil Spill Modeling Reports [PDF: 5.39Mb, 44 pages]
Annex E Emergency Response Plan [PDF: 49Mb, 411 pages]
Annex F Well Control Contingency Plan [PDF: 103.4Mb, 385 pages]
Annex G Environmental Monitoring and Reporting [PDF: 4.27Mb, 28 pages]
Annex-H Marine Protection Rules Part 170 Appendix [PDF:2.47Mb, 19 pages]