Oil industry beefs up for political fight ahead

Oil industry beefs up for political fight ahead

By Pattrick Smellie

Jan. 16 (BusinessDesk) – The New Zealand oil and gas industry announced the appointment of a new chief executive and a quadrupled budget today as it prepares to fight harder for the industry in the face of growing opposition to unconventional oil exploration, such as deep-sea drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The initiatives came from a strategic review last year of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand and will see its budget swell from around $250,000 a year to around $1 million.

The revamped PEPANZ will also be governed by a board composed of the most senior representatives of oil and gas company players in New Zealand, mostly chief executives, whereas its previous governance involved a hands-on committee of second-tier managers. To emphasise the importance of the change, members of the new board will be prohibited from sending alternates to board meetings.

PEPANZ has also appointed a chief executive for the first time, naming former Z Energy commercial manager David Robinson to take the helm, assisted by its long-time executive officer, John Pfahlert.

Further staff appointments will also be made to improve PEPANZ’s capacity as a lobbyist and industry monitor.

Today’s announcements followed weekend controversy stirred by the Canadian oil explorer, TAG Oil, which has told investors in North America that its untested east coast North Island exploration programme could reveal a “Texas of the South”.

However, its partner in the programme, fellow Canadian Apache Oil, appears less gung-ho and was critical of TAG in an article in The Listener magazine examining the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, issue.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups are actively organising against deep-sea drilling and fracking, as well as opposing coal mining proposals on the West Coast and in Southland, arguing they pose greater environmental threats than economic benefits

Robinson said in a statement the level of current investment in New Zealand’s oil and gas industry was “insufficient” to sustain the current 3,370 full time jobs and its $1.9 billion direct annual contribution to the New Zealand economy.

“We cannot take the ongoing development of the petroleum sector for granted. New Zealand is a long way from the rest of the world, our oil and gas is hard to find and by international standards we have a small local gas market. It’s important to remember that we are competing with other countries for the explorer and producers investment dollar,” he said.

PEPANZ was committed to “the highest ethical and professional standards” in all aspects of the business – from health and safety, to environmental safeguards and stakeholder consultation,” he said.

(BusinessDesk)

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