Introduction
1.2.4
Embargoed The Taranaki Basin
.. The Taranaki Basin covers an area of approximately 330,000 square kilometres.
.. Of the 22 mining permits that are currently active in New Zealand, 21 are within the Taranaki Basin. (The twenty-second mining permit, number 50100, is on the West Coast, near Greymouth. Note that from the introduction of the Crown Minerals Act 1991, petroleum ‘licences’ were replaced by ‘permits’. In this report, when discussing both, we use the generic term ‘permit’.) .. Over 400 exploration and production wells have been drilled, onshore and offshore, since the 1950s. .. ‘The Maui field has been the mainstay of NZ’s petroleum production since 1979 but is now in decline.’ .. The largest ever crude oil spill in New Zealand took place at Ōkato in October 2007, affecting nearly 15 kilometres of coastline. The operators of the offshore ‘Umuroa’ production station, Australian Worldwide Exploration and Prosafe, were fined a total of $105,000 over the incident
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in 2009.
Sources : Crown Minerals, New Zealand Petroleum Basins (Wellington : Ministry of Economic Development, 2010), pp 12, 14 ; Crown Minerals, ‘Permit Web Map’, Ministry of Economic
Development, https ://data.crownminerals.govt.nz (accessed 30 November 2010) ; doc E22, p 161 ; Taranaki Regional Council, Taranaki Regional Council Marine Oil Spill Tier 2 Response – AWE/Prosafe FPSO Spill – Okato Beaches – October 2007 (Stratford : Taranaki Regional Council, 2009), p 38
The East Coast Basin .. The East Coast Basin is located along the East Coast of the North Island and extends to the north-
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ern tip of the east coast of the South Island. It covers an area, onshore and offshore, of approximately 120,000 square kilometres.
.. More than 40 wells have been drilled onshore, and three have been drilled offshore since the 1950s.
.. MED’s Crown Minerals Group reported in 2010 that the region ‘has potential for large petroleum accumulations’ and that over 300 oil and gas seeps are already known.
Sources : doc A29, p 4 ; Crown Minerals, New Zealand Petroleum Basins (Wellington : Ministry of Economic Development, 2010), pp 40, 44
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