A seminar this evening, at which Dr Henry is the sole speaker, has attracted interest from 100 Dunedin business people keen to find out more about the role Dunedin might play in offshore exploration.
While the seminar is focused on the opportunities available to Dunedin, Dr Henry said yesterday he was prepared for discussion on environmental issues.
Dr Henry believed the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill in Alaska in 1989 was an example of how the world responded to oil industry disasters.
"That changed the nature of world shipping," Dr Henry said, with double-hulled tankers replacing single-hulled tankers.
"And my belief is that the same thing will happen with this - that best practice will now be employed and the regulatory environment will be tighter."
"Sometimes, you need a major disaster to wake people's ideas up. It's just unfortunate that somebody has to pay the price for it."
If a $100 million exploration well is drilled off the Otago coast, the "operator" is expected to be Texas-based oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which is also a partner in the leaking Gulf of Mexico well.
Anadarko has a 50% interest in the Otago prospect, alongside Origin Energy, and a 25% shareholding in the Gulf of Mexico well, where BP is the "operator".
Anadarko has until August 21 to announce whether it will go ahead with the Otago well.
The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences' frontier basins project manager, Chris Uruski, also believes the Gulf of Mexico oil spill might "in the long run" lead to higher operating standards.
He doubted "very much" the disaster would affect Anadarko's exploration plans in New Zealand.
"It may well hurt them, but their business depends on them finding new reserves of oil and if they stop doing that they go out of business."
Mr Uruski believed drilling was "highly likely" off the Otago coast as part of a programme that would also include an exploration well off the Taranaki coast.
In Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee said the Government "do not have any prospect of deep-water drilling" in New Zealand for "at least the next 18 months" and by then "new requirements" would be included in legislation.
Dr Henry said his seminar would focus on what Dunedin "could be like in 10 years' time" if there was a "major" oil strike.
