Overnight the Oil Free Seas Flotilla tacked back and forth near the drillship Bob Douglas. Drilling has not commenced yet.
Meanwhile Prime Minister John Key, speaking from Thailand, said there is nothing to stop Greenpeace protesting the Texan oil giant Anadarko’s offshore drilling near Raglan and that they would be aware of the law to keep their distance. He says so long as they don’t obstruct the drilling work, they are entitled to be there.
Mr Key seems confused about what his Government has licensed off Raglan Coast saying, “The company can go about its legal rights to do its seismic work. New Zealand last year earnt just under a billion dollars from royalties and taxes in the oil and gas area.”
No John. It is not seismic work you have licensed Anadarko to carry out off the Raglan Coast. The seismic work was done a few years ago.
It is drilling an exploratory ultra-deep sea oil well:
- By a company headquartered in the Cayman Islands with just a $100,000 limited liability in NZ
- With a Liberian registered untested drillship that is the length of two football fields
- You have required Anadarko to have an insurance policy that would cover 0.06% of the cost of cleaning up a spill
And Mr Key also got it wrong about deep-sea oil spills in the Gulf. It wasn’t as he said, 50,000 wells and one spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but 2256 wells and 74 spills. Equivalent to one spill for very 300 wells drilled.
Energy Minister Simon Bridges said the drill vessel has been able to get onto the site where they want to drill, “so it’s a pleasing result. I think it’s very pleasing that in this situation they’ve been able to exercise their rights (to protest) and the drill vessel’s also been able to exercise its rights. And that’s all been done peacefully and safely so far.” In a radio interview on Raglan Community Radio, electorate MP said he had only been contacted by four constituents so he felt there wasn’t much concern about the oil drilling. If he had more than 30 contacts then he would treat that as if man ypeople were concerned.
But police have been informed.
Greenpeace says that at this stage none of the boats involved have any plan to move.