Sea North of Spit Targeted for Oil Search

By GALE,Hayley

The Tasman Sea north of Farewell Spit is one of the areas targeted by the Government for oil exploration as the cost of oil from traditional stocks continues to spiral upwards.

In a bid to accelerate exploration by overseas oil companies, Crown Minerals, within the Ministry of Economic Development, has carried out geotechnical offshore surveys around the country, and made the results freely available to oil companies.

The site north of Farewell Spit is included in an area which extends along the west coast of the North Island as far as Auckland.

“We’re expecting to get a lot of interest. It’s pretty exciting and we’re fizzing with energy,” said Crown Minerals spokesman Mark Aliprantis, manager of petroleum and minerals investment.

Two oil fields 60km offshore of Taranaki, the Tui Field and the Maari Field, are about to start production and as more sites become available Crown Minerals will invite bids from overseas investors.

“The country is already becoming a destination of interest from the largest to the smallest oil companies. It’s our policy to promote offshore New Zealand as an area for exploration,” Mr Aliprantis said.

He said there had been exploratory drilling for oil in the Nelson region in the past. Oil seeps near Murchison were explored in the 1930s and Tapawera in the 1980s. Drilling also took place offshore north of Golden Bay in the 1970s and 1980s.

Crown Minerals spokesman Bob Glancy said “as pressure on traditional oil stocks increases and the price of oil rises to unprecedented levels, the question of new sources is reaching a critical point”.

A New Zealand Petroleum Conference is to be held at Auckland’s Skycity Convention Centre next month at which the Minister of Energy David Parker and associate Minister of Energy Harry Duynhoven will speak.

“Why should we add to these oil companies’ massive profits? We could instead be growing biofuels, which are not only cleaner and renewable but would have the benefit of keeping the money within New Zealand,” Golden Bay Green Party representative Victoria Davis said.

Ngati Tama Trust chairman Fred Te Miha, of Motueka, said he was against “all exploitation” in the top of the south by overseas oil companies. “The Government is not considering the environmental effects or the effects on the fishing industry,” he said.

at Golden Bay High School at 7pm.