Don’t drill it if you can’t plug it

John Key’s Government should not allow exploration for deep sea oil in New Zealand waters before the industry proves it can plug oil leaks in deep water, said the Green Party today.

“John Key stated this morning that he believes the Government can manage the environmental risks of deep sea oil drilling. The Prime Minister should share with us the basis of that belief,” said Green Party spokesperson for deep water oil drilling David Clendon.

“What clever technology or response plan does John Key know about that no-one else has heard of?”

Brazilian energy company Petrobras began exploring last week for oil and gas in a 12,000 square kilometre area in the Raukumara Basin off East Cape.

“A deep water oil leak would be an environmental catastrophe. The nearest rig that could help fix it would be months away,” said Mr Clendon.

“It is environmentally reckless to start a deep water oil drilling program in one of the most important ecological regions on the planet when the oil companies don't know how to plug deep water oil wells if anything goes wrong.

“The Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico shows that the industry has not solved the environmental and safety issues involved. Yet we are allowing prospect drilling in an even more remote, geologically unstable area with deeper water off the East Coast.

“Without a safety plan, oil drilling off our shores poses an unacceptable environmental, social and economic risk,” said Mr Clendon.

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