Earlier this year, New Zealand’s Canterbury region was shaken to its core by a devastating earthquake that literally ripped the community apart. Today, as people there continue cleaning up, many feel like they are once again under siege. The new threat: hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) for natural gas and shale oil, a procedure that has been linked to increased seismic activity.
Because oil and gas reserves are owned by the Crown, all New Zealanders should benefit from its development. But many people are worried about increased off-shore oil drilling and natural gas and shale oil exploration, and wonder how more fossil fuel extraction will impact the environment. The Green Party has called for a moratorium on natural gas fracking, and the party’s success in the recent general election reflects public support for that position.
Fracking is not new to New Zealand. The Taranaki Basin has the country’s most developed petroleum reserves, and since 2003 around 30 wells have been fracked here. That’s a drop in the bucket by international standards. But if the industry has its way, those 30 wells will be just the beginning. TAG Oil believes the rest of New Zealand is severely under-explored and is “one of the few remaining high potential untapped oil and gas frontiers in the world.” It says the country’s oil-rich fractured shale source-rock formations are a “widespread exploration target with major unconventional oil and gas potential.”
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