Publicly notified consents should not be required for offshore oil and gas exploration activities within New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association.
In response to reports that Minister for the Environment Amy Adams was not ruling out not including consent requirements in regulations covering deepwater drilling in the the EEZ area, the Green Party and Forest & Bird roundly criticised the Government on Friday, the Greens calling for an outright ban on drilling to depths beyond 500m.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, costing an estimated $NZ46.3 billion in clean-up and compensation costs, was in 1500m of water and sparked widespread public concern over the hazards of drilling.
However, Petroleum Exploration and Production Association chief executive David Robinson said the topography of New Zealand's seabed was entirely different to that of the Gulf of Mexico"The terrain and activity of the South is vastly different to the Gulf, which was [oil under] high pressure and high temperature," he said.
He noted the Great South Basin and Canterbury Basin, which may be hosting an exploration drill ship in about a year, were "more than likely gas prospects" rather than oil.
While he said there would always be a "residual risk" to any drilling programme, it was "very unlikely New Zealand would ever have any problems drilling around its coastlines".
He likened the risk mitigation to that of Air New Zealand. Although commercial aircraft had crashed, Air New Zealand maintained theirs to highest standard possible, he said.
He dismissed suggestion the introduction of publicly notifiable consents was a way of giving the public reassurance on safety and environmental concerns, There already existed, under the Resource Management Act and new EEZ legislation, a "plethora" of regulations to adhere to.
"It is not as if the [oil and gas exploration] industry is unregulated," Mr Robinson said.
He said in Taranaki, drilling had been safely operating for decades, without the need for consents, and the EEZ should be similarly covered and not require consents.
The Government is shortly to decide which offshore activities should be prohibited or discretionary, and which require consent or can be permitted within stated rules, under the recently passed Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act.
Mr Robinson said people did not understand that drilling at great depths was no riskier than shallow drilling.
"Whether it's 500 metres or more than a kilometre, it makes no difference," he said.
The environmental impact of a 23cm bore into the seabed was "no more than a pin-prick in the ocean".
