Southland's Conservation Board has greeted a proposed gas drilling operation off New Zealand's coast with a resounding "no".
The board released a statement yesterday regarding the planned of Austrian company OMV, saying its view was "the continued exploration for oil and gas is not consistent with the need to protect native species and their habitats".
OMV announced in April it plans three exploration and seven follow-up appraisal wells off Otago's coast in the Great South Basin.
The 10 oil and gas prospects are within a 100km-150km arc, southeast of Dunedin.
Conservation board chairman John Whitehead said there was clear evidence further development and use of fossil fuels would make life on Earth "much more difficult for endangered wildlife into the future".
"While the economic and social costs on humans are predicted to be enormous, continued use of fossil fuels will contribute to the extinction of species we all value highly."
The board wrote a letter to the company urging it to consider diverting its "considerable resources" to more sustainable methods of energy development and supply.
It noted the company was developing hydrogen fuels and using plastic recycling to generate fuels and energy sources.
The board was concerned the economic and social environment 10 years from now, when any newly discovered gas would be available for use, would be much different and there would be less demand for fossil fuels.
"This could undermine the economic viability of the company so that taxpayers might have to clean up wastes and unwanted structures left behind."
The board invited OMV to make a further presentation outlining a new direction it could take that would not jeopardise New Zealand's environmental sustainability.
