Climate Justice Taranaki publishes regular newsletters. Please read them on our website or subscribe by emailing us at climatejusticetaranaki@riseup.net
To get you interested, we have included our first newsletter below:
No Drilling in Taranaki – Newsletter 1 – 14.03.2011
Ko Ranginui e tu nei – Ko Papatuanuku e takoto ake nei
Tena koutou, Tena tatou
This is the very first email newsletter about our communities attempts to stop the gas and oil drilling in Taranaki. We have started with a series of hui in Parihaka over recent months and are now getting ready for a Public Meeting in Okato on 22nd March. People have set up a Facebook presence and we are working on a website too. We have produced an information sheet and have had some recent success in getting publicity in the local newspaper which goes out to several thousand people across the wider Taranaki region. If anyone would like to help leafletting for the hui at WOMAD this Friday please email us back.
In this newsletter, we have compiled relevant information about the massive expansion of mining activities in Taranaki and across Aotearoa. There are also links to interesting articles and websites further down. We would like to extend a warm welcome for you to come to our public meeting in Okato to hear more about what’s going and to discuss any concerns our communities may have.
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:: UPCOMING EVENT
Public Meeting, Tuesday 22nd March, 7-9pm, Hempton Hall, Okato.
30 new oil and gas exploration permits? Stop the drilling in Taranaki!
A public meeting in Okato will draw attention to the massive expansion of oil and gas exploration across Taranaki and nationwide.
With 30 more oil and gas exploration permits given out recently in Taranaki, we now live in the most likely place for a major oil spill in NZ, threatening wildlife, kaimoana and our beaches. A new drilling technique called ‘fracking’ that is poisoning drinking water and causing cancers, asthma and animal health problems, is quickly becoming widespread in Taranaki, not to mention the problems of peak oil and climate change… so how can we stop it?
Survey company BTW has started further seismic surveying in recent weeks along the coast between Okato and Rahotu. Some land-owners are stopping the survey by blocking access to their land. Is there a way we can stand together against this environmental destruction as a community? While the companies of this totally unsustainable industry are making billions of dollars, the local community will not profit at all from the exploration given the costs we will bear from the pollution and damages.
Come to a public meeting on Tuesday 22nd March at 7pm, Hempton Hall in Okato, to hear more about what’s going on and what communities around the world are doing to safeguard their environments and their livelihoods.
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:: NEW PERMITS ACROSS AOTEAROA
A massive number of new onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration permits have recently been awarded to several mining companies by the NZ government. Test drilling has begun in some areas and more are due to start soon. These permits cover an area 42 times greater than that which is currently being mined, across most of Aotearoa but most intensively in Taranaki. The companies have the right to explore and test-drill at risk of destroying waahi tapu and nature reserves, pollute oceans, soils and groundwater and produce new fossil fuel to add to the global problem of climate change. We are supposed to be turning away from fossil fuels not increasing production.
Hapu, iwi and community groups are on the rise all over Aotearoa and across the world, working to stop fossil fuel extraction. Together we are winning. We must reduce our energy use and switch to safe, renewable energies to protect the wellbeing of all who inhabit this planet, now and in the future. Keep fossil fuels in the ground!
:: THE TARANAKI PERMITS
Taranaki already has the highest number of onshore and offshore oil and gas drillsites in the country. There are 13 new onshore/coastal permits that allows almost the entire Taranaki region to be ‘explored’ now, except a fairly thin area from near Waitara to Manaia that includes the National Park. The company Greymouth Petroleum is focussing on northern to central Taranaki while companies Kea Petroleum, TAG Oil, Green Gate, L&M Energy and Todd Energy are taking the rest of inland eastern and southern Taranaki. Todd Energy and partners are taking the west coast. There are 15 new offshore permits off the Taranaki coast, that cover an area approximately half the size of New Zealand – not including areas already being mined of course.
Timing of permits differ but most are due to start this year and have a year or so to finish exploration before they move on to production drilling. See www.crownminerals.govt.nz for more information.
:: AN ONSHORE EXAMPLE: PEP 51149 – ‘Tohu’
‘Tohu’, is an onshore/nearshore exploration permit stretching from Omata out to the seabed near Cape Egmont to near Opunake and inland to the National Park boundary. The operator is Todd Energy and the partners are Todd Energy (40%) with Melbourne-based Cue Energy (20%), Auckland-based Mighty River Power Gas Investments (30%) and Queensland explorer Mosaic Oil NL. There are several gas prospects in this area: Te Kiri (possibly near Arawhata Rd), Kina (near Kina Rd), Tipoka (near Tipoka Rd), Tohu (near Newall Rd) and Pungarehu (near Okato to Warea to near Cape Egmont).
“The PEP 51149 exploration program is targeting gas-condensate in… Eocene reservoir sands. A number of prospects and leads have been delineated in this permit on both 2D and 3D seismic, with the first exploration well planned for early/mid 2011 and a second well in 2012. The prospective gas resource targeted in these prospects is 100 to 200 BCF [billion cubic feet] with 4–6 MM [million] barrels of condensate [petrol]. A large, but higher risk stratigraphic play with a prospective resource in the order of 600 BCF gas and 21 MM barrels of condensate has also been identified within this permit [‘Pungarehu’]. Further seismic is planned for 2011 to mature this lead.” – Mosaic website
“Reprocessing of the Te Kiri 3D and vintage 2D seismic lines is in progress. The Tohu 2D seismic survey has commenced. The first well is to be drilled by May 2011.” – Todd Energy document
Survey company BTW has started further seismic surveying in recent weeks along the coast between Okato and Rahotu. Some landowners are stopping the survey by denying access to their land. We have written to and phoned many of the landowners encouraging them to stop access and inviting them to the public meeting on 22nd March in Okato.
:: AN OFFSHORE EXAMPLE: PEP 51558 – ‘Parihaka’
‘Parihaka’ is an offshore permit. The operator is AWE and it is owned by AWE (30%), NZOG (20%), Todd Energy (20%) and Mitsui EGP Australia (30%). This permit covers 2850 sq km northwest of New Plymouth and they are planning one exploration well by 2012.
:: POLLUTION AND DAMAGE
Oilspills: The massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an exploration drillsite. Oilspills are impossible to clean up completely and poison sea waters, seabed soils, marinelife and beaches. Costs and cleanup are usually carried by local communities who also lose their fishing and recreation grounds.
“Taranaki is now rated the highest-risk region in New Zealand for the likelihood of a marine oil spill of up to 1000 tonnes occurring. .. [A]ccording to a new risk assessment by Maritime New Zealand… Already there have been spills, said the report. In 2000 Fletcher Challenge spilled up to 50 litres of condensate in the Pohokura field off Motunui, which spread along two kilometres of beach. Then in 2007 an estimated 33 tonnes of oil was spilled in the Tui field off the western Taranaki coastline, and 23 tonnes came ashore along 14 kilometres of coastline. In November last year oil spilled in the Maari field off Taranaki’s south-west coast, and it washed up on Kapiti coast beaches.” – Taranaki Daily News Feb 2, 2011
Drill site exploration damage: This includes bush clearance, earthworks, roading and infrastructure for drillsites, groundwater contamination from extraction processes such as hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), soil pollution from contaminated drilling waste, increased erosion from stream diversion/earthworks, waahi tapu damage/destruction, air pollution, noise pollution (especially to sonar-dependent marine mammals), disruption of views damaging regional beauty, increased roading and traffic leading to more accidents and land confiscations, site access restrictions leading to increased corporate policing and loss of areas used to gather kaimoana and for recreation. Profits will remain with the corporations while the community will pay for the dammages.
Climate Change: Oil and gas are major greenhouse gas emmitting fuels. The effects of climate change are predicted to range from increased extreme weather events, unpredictable seasonss and crop failure to increased health problems and diseases. On-flow effects of climate change include increased numbers of environmental refugees, sealevel rise, groundwater pollution, increased coastal erosion, increased extinctions (currently the worst in geological history already), and further economic and political injustice.
:: WHAT CAN WE DO?
Use government and legislation: Demand councillors and MPs take back the permits and resource consents. Repeal the Crown Minerals Act. Fight in the Environment Court. Push the Waitangi Tribunal WAI796 Petroleum Report recommendations. Get waahi tapu and historic places protected. Deny access to your land.
Community-led Direct Action! Sign up to our newsletter. Organise resistance in your community, hapu and iwi. Come to the public meeting in Okato. Educate everyone at public meetings, online, with stickers, t-shirts and bilboards. Help build a Taranaki-wide network. Protest against companies and council decisions. Network with other anti-drilling groups around the country. Declare your area a drill-free zone. Oppose survey and drillsites. Participate in protest marches. Occupy drillsites. Block road access. Do what you can!
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:: ARTICLES
- Tag Oil ‘aggressively’ drilling in Taranaki – http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4666822/Tag-Oil-aggressively-drilling-in-Taranaki (17/02/2011)
- Taranaki well success for Tag Oil – http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4739716/Taranaki-well-success-for-Tag-Oil (7/03/2011)
- Billions in ironsand – http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/4738422/Billions-in-ironsand (7/03/2011)
- Plans to disrupt drilling boosted by tribunal report – http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/64913/plans-to-disrupt-drilling-boosted-by-tribunal-report (24/12/2010)
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:: LINKS
- Climate Justice Taranaki: http://climatejusticetaranaki.wordpress.com/
- No Drilling Aotearoa: http://www.nodrilling.org.nz/
- Stop the Drilling in Taranaki (Facebook Group): http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_205878806095057
- Hydraulic Fracturing aka Fracking (wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
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:: MOVIES
- GasLand: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com A documentary about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the USA that has now been proven to cause major environmental problems such as contamination of drinking water and rivers.
- The Pipe: http://www.thepipethefilm.com A documentary about a small Irish farming and fishing community resisting the construction of a major oil pipeline and processing plant in their territory.
