Texan corporate Anadarko postpones New Zealand deep sea drilling plans

Greenpeace NZ is celebrating the news today that Texan corporate Anadarko has postponed plans to drill test wells off the Taranaki and Canterbury coasts this summer.

The news comes hard on the heels of the Government’s failure to find any takers for its offshore oil block offers off Northland’s coast.

A story in the Energy Bulletin, published today, quotes Anadarko as saying that it has not been possible to find a rig early enough in the season to carry out its planned drilling programme.

However one unnamed industry commentator is also quoted in the story as crediting Anadarko’s announcement to the flotilla-based protest that Greenpeace, te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Porou, and various other organisations mounted earlier this year to disrupt Petrobras’s seismic survey off the East Cape (1).

“This is another major nail in the coffin for the Government’s programme of the deep sea oil drilling in New Zealand,” says Greenpeace NZ Climate Campaigner Steve Abel.

“Our best opportunity for prosperity is going to come from making the transition to a smart clean economy, and of course clean energy is a vital part of that,” says Abel.