December 12, 2016
Community pressure unsettles oil giants
Greenpeace is celebrating the departure of one oil company from New Zealand waters, and it’s on the hunt for another.
Anadarko has given up its search for oil in the Pegasus Basin off the Kaikoura and Wellington coasts.
That means the Texan oil giant now only has partial interests in exploration permits in the Canterbury basin and New Caledonia basin.
Greenpeace also released new footage of the Amazon Warrior letting off explosions every 10 seconds as it conducts a seismic survey on behalf of Statoil and Chevron.
Campaigner Mike Smith says the companies are susceptible to pressure, with the Maori involvement in the protests particularly important.
"Communities around this country have put up such a massive level of opposition to oil companies. It just seems like a no-brainer to them that this is a hostile place politically, internally withiin the country with all the opposition, that they just decided to pull out of here. It just seems like a best option for them because it causes them a lot of money all the disruption and unsettles the shareholders," he says.
Mike Smith says growing awareness of the impact of fossil fuels on climate change and a surge in renewable energy sources means it’s an end game for the oil industry.
Greenpeace footage of Amazon Warrior: https://youtu.be/wQRYclKyFCU
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