{"id":59658,"date":"2023-05-10T09:19:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T21:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=59658"},"modified":"2025-06-25T01:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T13:40:09","slug":"the-end-of-offshore-oil-and-gas-exploration-in-nz-was-hard-won-but-it-remains-politically-fragile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/the-end-of-offshore-oil-and-gas-exploration-in-nz-was-hard-won-but-it-remains-politically-fragile\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of offshore oil and gas exploration in NZ was hard won \u2013 but it remains politically\u00a0fragile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recent news that the New Zealand government has granted an offshore oil and gas exploration permit<\/a> it had earlier declined demonstrates how fragile the current ban on such activity still is.<\/p>\n\n

\"OMV
An OMV oil rig arrives in New Zealand waters in 2019<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The permit was eventually granted because the application was lodged just before the government\u2019s 2018 offshore exploration ban was in place. The High Court ruled it should therefore have been considered under the previous system.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s simply the latest twist in a long contest of ideas and ideologies. Between 2008 and 2017, Aotearoa New Zealand\u2019s offshore environment was opened up for further oil and gas exploration on the promise of economic growth and energy independence.<\/p>\n\n

The dominant narrative from the government and from industry was, at its core, that economic growth is essential, that oil was an untapped resource, and it would be irresponsible not to make use of it to generate capital and contribute to Aotearoa New Zealand\u2019s economic development. During these nine years, the government sought to \u201csecure\u201d this resource.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Abseilers install a billboard reading: Simon Bridges Pants on Fire’, in central Wellington. Greenpeace, which has booked the site for the next few weeks, says the billboard is challenging the National MP to clear his name by releasing full details of a meeting he had with oil company Shell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The government took action to provide certainty and, therefore, security for overseas investors by cultivating ties with the fossil fuel industry. For example, when protest sought to disrupt oil and gas exploration activities, the government introduced legislation to curtail at-sea protest and offered only limited Ma\u0304ori and community engagement about commercial extraction activities in ocean spaces.<\/p>\n\n

The story of the anti-deep sea oil campaign begins with increased efforts to entice transnational petroleum corporations to explore the country\u2019s extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Aotearoa New Zealand was among the first countries to embrace wholesale neoliberal reforms in the 1980s, and this approach to governance, economic, social and environmental policy and practice has become embedded over subsequent decades.<\/p>\n\n

In 2008, John Key\u2019s National-led government established what was described as a \u201cBusiness Growth Agenda\u201d, which included the sale of state assets, and the development of extractive industries. The orientation toward extractive industries was demonstrated through media that referred to an increasing need to catch up with Australia, and government ministers commenting on the need to make the \u201cmost use of the wealth hidden in our hills, under the ground and in our oceans\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Deep Water Horizon and the Rena<\/h2>\n\n

The government\u2019s agenda for the oil and gas sector described in its Business Growth Agenda didn\u2019t go unnoticed by climate justice and environmental activists, nor iwi (tribal) groups, many of whom were already active against coal mining.<\/p>\n\n

\"Deepwater
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon a day after an explosion. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire while searching for survivors from the rig crew. Eleven workers died and millions of barrels of crude oil gushed into the Gulf in worst oil spill in United States history.
\u00a9 The United States Coast Guard<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In Aotearoa New Zealand, as the government sought to deliver on its Business Growth Agenda, two further events sensitised the public to the risks of engaging in extractive industry in ocean environments and the power of corporates to elude their responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n

First, the Rena disaster<\/a> occurred in Tauranga, off the east coast of the North Island. The Rena was a container ship that ran aground on the O\u0304ta\u0304iti\/Astrolabe reef in October 2011 while on its way into Tauranga Harbour. The ship broke up over a period of months, leaving fuel and debris from containers littered across the ocean and local beaches.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Oil covers a section of Papamoa beach. It comes from the Rena, a container ship which ran aground the Astrolab Reef, about 20km from Tauranga on October 5th. Greenpeace New Zealand is campaigning against deep sea oil drilling off New Zealand’s coasts, on the basis that such activity could well lead to a far worse spill than that from the Rena. The setting up of the final frontiers in oil exploration will also only make the climate crisis worse.
\u00a9 Simon Grant \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The second event, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, sensitised the public to the risks of offshore oil extraction. This disaster was a direct precursor to the emergence of the Oil Free campaign across Aotearoa New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n

Petrobras and the Rauk\u016bmara Basin<\/h2>\n\n

On the east coast of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, the iwi of Te Wha\u0304nau-a\u0304-Apanui, with support from Greenpeace New Zealand, disrupted a large Brazilian petroleum company, Petrobras, from seismic surveying of the Rauku\u0304mara Basin in the EEZ.<\/p>\n\n

\"Disrupting
Inflatables and a boat with Greenpeace activists disrupt the seismic testing carried out by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras in Raukumara Basin, off East Cape, North Island. Banners are displayed reading “Stop deep sea oil”. Deep sea oil drilling is being opposed because of the risk of oil spills polluting marine life and coastlines and the impact of climate change when the oil is burnt.
\u00a9 Malcolm Pullman \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The EEZ is an area over which a nation-state has partial sovereignty, including to extract resources, demarcated under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. It extends to approximately 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Petrobras had secured a five-year permit to explore for oil and gas under block offers released in 2010.<\/p>\n\n

Te Wha\u0304nau-a\u0304-Apanui had requested that no exploration for oil and gas be undertaken in their area. Nevertheless, Petrobras informed Te Wha\u0304nau-a\u0304-Apanui that they would begin their seismic survey work in early 2011 and began work in April using the large survey vessel, the Orient Explorer.<\/p>\n\n

Opposition to Petrobras began quickly both onshore and offshore, demanding \u201cno drill, no spill\u201d. A flotilla of five vessels sailed out to the seismic survey vessel to attempt to halt its work over a period of seven weeks, where actions included sailing in front of the survey vessel.<\/p>\n\n

\"The
The oil free seas flotilla in the Raukumara Basin, April 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Following these events, a number of meetings were reportedly held between government agencies and industry representatives concerned by the lack of a regulatory regime in the EEZ and the risk of protesters disrupting lawful permitted activities. Petrobras warned the government that they would withdraw if community action continued.<\/p>\n\n

Subsequently, a major piece of legislation was enacted as an amendment to the Crown Minerals Act 1991. This amendment criminalised protest at sea near a vessel engaged in oil and gas exploration or drilling.<\/p>\n\n

The \u2018Andarko amendment\u2019<\/h2>\n\n

The amendment to the Crown Minerals Act was d\ubbed the \u201cAnadarko amendment\u201d after the Texan oil corporation that was active in Aotearoa New Zealand at the time. It was also a silent partner to the Deep Water Horizon rig responsible for the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n\n

The amendment contravened international human rights law, and went against a long tradition of protest at sea in Aotearoa New Zealand, by banning activists from coming within 500 metres of an oil and gas vessel. The Minister for Energy and Resources at the time said the protesters shouldn\u2019t be trying to stop other people going about their lawful business.<\/p>\n\n

\"SV
SV Vega confronts the Noble Bob Douglas drilling ship on the site where oil giant Anadarko intends to start exploratory drilling for deep sea oil. The drill site was over 100 nautical miles off Raglan, on the west coast of New Zealand, and in waters around a kilometer and a half deep. On board was Jeanette Fitzsimons and Bunny McDiarmid and they intentionally broke the Anadarko Amendment but were never charged.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

While the Anadarko Amendment sought to provide assurances and security to fossil fuel companies, activists changed the financial equation by disrupting exploration, blockading banks who refused to divest from oil and gas, and protesting annual fossil fuel conferences.<\/p>\n\n

Activists sought to secure a future that was not dependent on fossil fuels, and that both demanded and demonstrated a sense of responsibility and care for the impacts of continuing business as usual.<\/p>\n\n

Change and uncertainty<\/h2>\n\n

In 2018, a newly elected government enacted legislation that banned all new oil and gas exploration permits in Aotearoa\u2019s EEZ, with the exception of an area of active production off the west coast of the North Island in Taranaki.<\/p>\n\n

At the time, media debate was polemical, either decrying the lost revenue and the impact it would have on the economy, or arguing it didn\u2019t go far enough because it did not apply to existing permits.<\/p>\n\n

At the beginning of 2021, the last existing exploration permit outside Taranaki was surrendered, with companies claiming a combination of the pandemic and pricing uncertainties as the primary reasons for withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n

While we don\u2019t suggest that these actions, or those of the current government in relation to climate change, are anywhere near enough, the Oil Free campaign successfully disrupted efforts to explore and extract from the \u201cblue frontier\u201d of Aotearoa New Zealand\u2019s EEZ.<\/p>\n\n

The campaign made it challenging for fossil fuel companies to do business here, and contested the government\u2019s narratives about the need for exploration and production. Campaigners also narrated what a hopeful, climate-just world might look like.<\/p>\n\n

But such a \u201cwin\u201d could be precarious, with the opposition National Party claiming it will repeal the ban on new oil and gas exploration<\/a> if elected in 2023. Indeed, the court case from earlier this year that revived an exploration permit demonstrates how messy and precarious stopping oil will be.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

This is an edited extract from<\/em> Stopping Oil: Climate Justice and Hope<\/a> by Sophie Bond, Amanda Thomas and Gradon Diprose (Melbourne University Press).<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Amanda Thomas<\/a>, Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Te Herenga Waka \u2014 Victoria University of Wellington<\/a><\/em>; Gradon Diprose<\/a>, Senior Researcher, Environmental Social Science, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research<\/a><\/em>, and Sophie Bond<\/a>, Associate Professor in Geography, University of Otago<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This article\u00a0is a guest post and doesn’t necessarily represent the views of Greenpeace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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