The revelation that Shell has advised its investment bank to offload its $1 billion New Zealand portfolio is another big nail in the coffin of the Government\u2019s petroleum agenda, according to Greenpeace New Zealand.<\/p>\n
On Friday,\u00a0 Australian media reported that the oil giant had called on JP Morgan to sell its New Zealand portfolio, which includes oil exploration and production assets.<\/p>\n
This follows on from the oil giant\u2019s announcement last December that it was placing its New Zealand assets under a review process.<\/p>\n
Climate campaigner Steve Abel said Shell\u2019s imminent withdrawal from New Zealand shows the Government\u2019s oil drilling programme is now \u201cin its death throes\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s biggest oil company is just the latest to abandon oil and gas exploration here, following on from the exits of Petrobras and ExxonMobil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo lose Shell after more than 100 years in New Zealand is a huge blow to the industry and to the Government\u2019s fervent investment of public money in oil drilling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since reports emerged of Shell\u2019s plans to offload its New Zealand portfolio, the company has tried to scuttle the news, claiming it\u2019s still exploring its options.<\/p>\n
But Abel doesn\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a geotechnical scientist to read the signs here – Shell wants out of New Zealand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrime Minister John Key\u2019s oil program is in tatters. There has been no new oil found in eight concerted years of exploration, and now the biggest rat is fleeing the sinking tanker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government urgently needs to quit oil and put in place a clean energy strategy that will power our society and create thousands of jobs in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
No new deep sea oil permits were allocated in the last block offer announcement in December 2015, and of the almost 430,000 square kilometres on offer, there were only successful bids on 12,000 of them. <\/p>\n
It was thought that the lack of deep sea permits was because no oil companies showed interest in sticking around for the year to come.<\/p>\n
Shell didn\u2019t submit any bids in that process.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups like Greenpeace have been fighting Shell\u2019s oil agenda on home turf and abroad for years. <\/p>\n
It was hailed a major victory when Shell pulled its oil drilling plans in the Arctic last year, after massive public pressure that included a global petition with more than seven million signatures.<\/p>\n
Abel said Prime Minister Key is pushing climate change denialist policies by continuing to insist that New Zealand must look for the very oil that scientists say we can\u2019t burn if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. <\/p>\n
\u201cUpon his return from the Paris Climate Conference in January, the Prime Minister stated he had no intention of scaling back any search for fossil fuels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even the oil companies are seeing the writing on the wall in terms of New Zealand\u2019s petroleum prospects.\u00a0 At the moment it looks like Key will be the last man on the sinking ship, even after the oil companies have abandoned their posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good news for our oceans coastlines and climate. The people of Otago, Southland and the Chathams, where two of Shell\u2019s exploration permits are, can now breath a sigh of relief because it seems very unlikely anyone will be doing risky deep sea drilling down there for a long time – if ever.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The revelation that Shell has advised its investment bank to offload its $1 billion New Zealand portfolio is another big nail in the coffin of the Government\u2019s petroleum agenda, according to Greenpeace New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":2518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26,16],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-climate","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n