EPA opens submissions on STOS application for a jack-up rig

EPA opens submissions on STOS application for a jack-up rig

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is calling for submissions on Shell Todd Oil Services Limited’s application to use a jack-up rig at its Māui Platforms, off the coast of Taranaki.

Shell Todd Oil Services, or STOS, was granted a marine consent in 2015 to carry out a number of activities at its Māui facilities.

It’s now applying for another marine consent, to allow it to use a jack-up rig for its future drilling work.

A jack-up rig is a type of drilling platform that can be floated to a site.

It has extendable legs, which are extended onto, and into, the seabed to “jack up” the platform above the surface of the sea.

The application also includes a marine discharge consent for the discharge of any harmful substances that are captured in the jack-up rig’s drain system.

•Read more about the application

The public now have 20 working days to make a submission

This is a publicly notified application.

The EPA’s General Manager for Climate, Land & Oceans, Siobhan Quayle, says anyone who wants to is welcome to make a submission.

“We have an online form on our website that will step you through the process of making a submission. It is easy, and we’re here to help if you need it.”

“Submitters can also choose to speak at a public hearing, which is likely to take place in August.”

•Go to the submission form on the EPA website

You must make your submission by 5:00pm Monday 19 June 2017.

The EPA has appointed a decision making committee

The EPA has appointed three people to a decision making committee to consider the application and submissions, and deliver a decision.

The committee members are Kerry Prendergast (committee Chair and EPA Board representative), Miria Pomare, and Gerda Kuschel.

•Read more about the decision making committee, its role, and its members.

Correcting an error in public notices published on Tuesday 16 May 2017

A public notice about this application was placed in some newspapers on Tuesday 16 May 2017.

Unfortunately, it contained an error in the accompanying diagram, when published in the Otago Daily Times, Taranaki Daily News, New Zealand Herald and The Press.

The Dominion Post mistakenly did not run the public notice on Tuesday.

The EPA has published the correct notice in these five newspapers today.

This means the public submission period has been extended and will now run through to 5:00pm Monday 19 June 2017.

If you have already made a submission on this application it will remain valid. You may choose to withdraw or update your submission on the basis of the updated map contained in the correct public notice issued today.

What we do

The EPA is responsible for managing the effects of specified, restricted activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf. The area extends from 12 nautical miles to 200 nautical miles (22-370 kilometres) offshore and is about 20 times the size of New Zealand’s land mass.

Part of our role is to consider marine consent applications under the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012, and associated regulations.