Protest against oil drilling in NZ

Protest flotilla to take on Anadarko

A flotilla of ocean-going yachts is racing Texas oil giant Anadarko's drillship to the spot 110 nautical mile west of Raglan where an exploratory oil well will be drilled in 1500 metres of water this month.

Fleet support: Protesters farewell yachts setting sail from Auckland to a drilling site about 160 kilometres off the coast of Raglan.

Stuff,

12 November, 2013

A flotilla of ocean-going yachts is racing Texas oil giant Anadarko's drillship to the spot 110 nautical mile west of Raglan where an exploratory oil well will be drilled in 1500 metres of water this month.

The Vega, Shearwater II and Friendship left Auckland yesterday to join the Bluff-based Tiama and yachts from Kaikoura, Wellington and the Bay of Islands in the Oil Free Seas protest against drilling at the Romney Prospect in the Taranaki Basin.

Supporters waving signs which said things like "C'MON NZ . . . STICK IT TO ‘IM" saw the yachts off as they headed out to sea to join the rest of the flotilla. Among the protesters were members of the Raglan- based Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) group chaired by Phil McCabe.

The Noble Bob Douglas is en route from North Korea and, if a Notice to Mariners is anything to go by, could begin its drilling as early as Friday. Land Information New Zealand is warning vessels to steer 5 nautical miles clear of the drillship and support vessels Bailey Tide, Hart Tide, and Caroline Tide III between Friday and February 14.

"We are going up to where the oil rig is going to be," said Vega co-skipper Daniel Mares. "We will have discussions and make our decisions (about what form the protest is going to take) out there. We will ask them, politely, to go somewhere else to play with their great big drilling rig.

"Even if Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges is right and the risks of anything going wrong is low we saw how long it took to respond to the Rena . . . we are going to suffer for that one in the future."

Mr Mares said the Government had offered Anadarko a $46 million sweetener to get it prospecting here.

"Why aren't we producing more wind turbines or solar panels or something else that will produce a lot more jobs?"

Raglan residents protested in the street at the weekend, waving placards, after the Government failed to consult them and Anadarko did not front at a public meeting last week.

A similar protest at Kawhia Harbour was called off by the organising canoeists who plan to organise something bigger and better.

Raglan Farmstay owner Chris Rayner has offered his 16-bed facility to the flotilla crew and will help with getting supplies to the yachts as the protest ramps up.

"To be honest, the community is pretty pissed off," Mr Rayner said. "It's come out of left-field quite fast. They are going to be drilling before Christmas."

Mr Rayner is helping organise a community meeting on Saturday at the Manu Bay car park where locals will share information and protest.

On a related note, Mr McCabe had just heard public submissions would open on November 21 after Trans Tasman Resources' application to mine 65 square kilometres off the coast of Patea/Hawera had been accepted.

"Teams of KASM volunteers will be hitting the streets and beaches up and down the coast until the final minutes of that submission period raising awareness of this issue and encouraging oceanlovers to voice their concerns through the submission process," he said.