New Zealand Oil & Gas got a Canterbury Basin permit extension in April, until 2022, and has applied for another extension, covering its Toroa permit, about 200km south of Dunedin, to extend it from 2020 to 2022.
Separately, Austrian oil giant OMV gained a permit extension for the Great South Basin last year and is applying for a marine consent; for up to three exploration and seven appraisal wells off Otago.
Greenpeace climate campaigner Amanda Larsson said the ability of oil companies to seek and receive drilling extensions revealed ''a serious loophole'' in New Zealand's internationally celebrated oil and gas ban.
A year ago a ban on new offshore permits anywhere in New Zealand was put in place, with onshore permits restricted to Taranaki; the latest covering 2118sq km.
Some southern permits potentially have a decades-long lifetime, but only if commercially viable gas was found. Any permits relinquished would immediately come under the new ban.
Ms Larsson said Greenpeace was demanding a complete end to fossil fuel exploration, both for land and sea, as well as the revoking of existing permits.
''Despite clear signs we're in a climate emergency and warnings from scientists and economists that we can't afford to burn even known oil reserves, companies like NZOG and OMV are still being allowed to go to the ends of the earth in search of new oil and gas to burn,'' she said. Any permit extension was ''essentially granting a new permit''.
She predicted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's coalition Government would subsequently lose international credibility.
