NZOG and OMV: No Future for you in Canterbury/GSB
Oil Free Otago will use the worldwide Hands Across the Sand event at St Clair Beach Dunedin to sign letters to company
directors of NZOG and OMV explaining why it is not worth their while to continue prospecting in the Southern Ocean.
Open letter to NZOG and OMV on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster,
Dear New Zealand Oil & Gas and OMV,
This year the NZ government banned new oil and gas permits in Aotearoa NZ (except for three more years in Taranaki).
This ban is the culmination of many years of resistance and opposition to oil and gas exploration from grassroots groups
around New Zealand.
New Zealanders have a strong history of resistance wherever we see injustice. The people of Parihaka practiced peaceful
civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action in Taranaki long before Gandhi. We were the first country in the world
to fight for women to get the vote. We opposed nuclear testing in the Pacific and made New Zealand nuclear free. We rose
up to help end apartheid in South Africa.
The biggest injustice facing us today is the breakdown of our climate system. We know we cannot burn most of the fossil
fuels already discovered if we are to retain a liveable climate for our children, so drilling for more is both unjust
and immoral. Now we have all but ended fossil fuel exploration here. Despite our government not yet banning current
permits such as PEP 52717, PEP 55794 and PEP 50119 in the Canterbury and Great South Basins, we will continue our proud
history of resistance until you surrender this permit.
It would be better for you to withdraw now rather than waste any more money attempting to find reluctant farm-in
partners for this and other of your New Zealand ventures. Anadarko, Shell, TAG, Greymouth Petroleum and Woodside have
all withdrawn from the Canterbury/Great South Basin region. Your company should too. On balance this would represent the
best possible outcome for your shareholders. New exploration at this time risks them pouring good money into worthless
stranded assets.
The NZ government’s ban of new permits represents a line in the sand. Today in Dunedin along with people in Christchurch
and all around the world, we made a human line in the sand to say NO more fossil fuel exploration and YES to a clean low
emissions economy.
Your companies are not welcome here.
Yours sincerely
Oil Free Otago
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Hands Across the Sand is a worldwide event began after the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon disaster, where people join
hands across the beach in a symbolic gesture to say No to more fossil fuel exploration and YES to clean alternatives.