But the wells are the opening salvo in a fresh push from the Government to expand the oil and gas in

This single well in 1500 metres of water is a new frontier for the country and could be the beginning of an oil bonanza, tapping into billions of barrels of oil believed trapped beneath the sediment extremely cheap airline tickets of New Zealand's massive exclusive economic zone. With each of those barrels would come royalties and taxes to build schools, roads, security and prosperity.
"Everybody has the events of Gulf of Mexico in their mind. The wells we are drilling in New Zealand are different in character and nature. They have none of the temperature and pressure issues of those in the Gulf. The engineers extremely cheap airline tickets tell me the wells we have to drill are very straightforward."
extremely cheap airline tickets Straightforward they may be, but the drilling off Taranaki's coast will be carried out in the wilds of the Tasman extremely cheap airline tickets Sea, in what Seay describes as "challenging" conditions where maximum and average significant wave heights are 6.7 metres and 2.2m respectively.
In recognition of that Anadarko will use the hi-tech and benignly named drill ship Noble Bob Douglas, which is under construction in Korea. If all goes to plan its first two deepwater extremely cheap airline tickets wells will be drilled off Canterbury's coast in search of gas before it turns its attention north to the Deepwater Taranaki Basin and its promise of oil.
But the wells are the opening salvo in a fresh push from the Government to expand the oil and gas industry. Next month exploration rights for a further 23 onshore and offshore blocks are up for tender. More will follow and many of those blocks, which could potentially reap the country billions in royalties, will require wells drilled in more than 1000m of water.
And though they will be out of sight, the grim pictures of catastrophic ecological destruction following the deepwater well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago mean the wells will never be out of mind. Just as it will not be forgotten that Anadarko was inextricably linked extremely cheap airline tickets to the Deepwater Horizon disaster through extremely cheap airline tickets its 25 per cent silent share in the doomed rig.
With the Tasman renowned as a wild sea and the distance from shore the wells are likely to be, the country's first and main response to a spill in the Deepwater Taranaki Basin will be dispersants sprayed on the oil to break it up. Helicopters will likely make the first attacks, followed by boats. Skimming the oil from the surface is likely extremely cheap airline tickets to be impractical.
extremely cheap airline tickets "The distance of the well from shore, the sea and wind conditions and the type of oil coming from a well all determine whether a spill would make it to shore," Maxwell says. "Offshore winds might push the oil into the Tasman, rough seas might help break the oil down and if it's light crude it would break down more quickly than heavy crude."
Green Party energy spokesman Gareth Hughes doesn't want the country to ever be in a position that it needs to know current directions, wind speeds and swell conditions and what they will mean for a large oil spill.
extremely cheap airline tickets A spill here harms more than marine and bird life; it also impacts on the country's "$20 billion" image as a pristine environment and New Zealanders' concept of what they want their country to be, he says.
Last year the government-commissioned Woodward report outlined a potential $9.5b extra in government revenue if exploration increased by 50 per cent in the next 10 years, and last week Energy Minister Phil Heatley enthusiastically backed the industry.
Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand chief executive David Robinson wants oil and gas resources exploited now because of, not in spite of, his view that oil and gas is a "transitional fuel" in the move to renewables like solar, extremely cheap airline tickets wind and geothermal.
"Renewables are not growing fast enough right now to replace oil and gas in the short term. So demand will continue for 50 or 60 years, but after that these renewable technologies will have a much greater extremely cheap airline tickets presence globally," he says.
Accidents leading to major oil spills are aberrations, albeit aberrations with often sickening extremely cheap airline tickets and expensive consequences. From next year the world's nine largest oil companies will co-operate to have the latest well-capping equipment warehoused in four central locations around the globe.