A new citizen’s organisation has claimed responsibilty for this weekend’s banner drop on the silos at the Raglan Wharf. Calling themselves Nautical Lovers Anonymous they dropped a humongous 100 square metre banner from the top of the Raglan Wharf silo apartments which reads ‘Together we can protect the ocean’ and ‘stop deep sea oil’.
According to the NLA’s facebook page they are encouraging people to engage in creative resistance in defense of the ocean. They say: “this is the place on facebook for all lovers of the nautical environment (that’s like, the ocean and stuff) who want to get themselves into a bit of
playful resistance to deep sea oil drilling”. The NLA say they will shortly be releasing a video about the banner drop.” (See below for video)
Oil could reach Raglan shores if exploratory drilling caused a spill, according to recently-released documents, but a spill is nevertheless considered “extremely unlikely”. The Raglan area would be most at risk of oil arriving on the shore in the summer period, with a medium, or 1 to 3 per cent, chance. But Greenpeace maintains the information proves drilling shouldn’t have gone ahead. In late November, the Anadarko drill ship Noble Bob Douglas began working on an exploratory ultra-deep sea oil well 110 nautical miles west of Raglan. This is the deepest undersea well ever attempted in New Zealand.
Oil and gas exploration company Anadarko’s plan for dealing with discharge during the drilling was released yesterday under the Official Information Act.
The plan, prepared by Environmental Resources Management, said while a spill could have significant environmental and social impacts, one was unlikely to occur. Given Anadarko’s prevention and response measures, any impact would be “as low as reasonably practicable”.
Other information indciates that the risk of a significant spill while drilling an ultra-deep sea oil well is one in nineteen. Hardly, the “as low as reasonably practicable” stated in this report.
Chief policy adviser for Greenpeace Nathan Argent said the Government and oil lobbyists had tried to stop the New Zealand public from finding out about what could happen in an oil spill.
“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,” he said.
“The whole government process around deepsea oil drilling has swung between utter farce and total shambles.”
Part of the discharge management plan was modelling to find “likely pathways and possible locations of shoreline beaching” of oil for several spill scenarios.