Living beside oil and gas sites in Taranaki

Many areas are impacted by oil and gas activities across Taranaki. Petroleum activities consist of prospecting involving seismic surveys using explosives; drilling; hydraulic fracturing; well workovers; hazardous substances waste disposal such as land farming, land spreading, mix-bury-cover, and deep well injection; high pressure oil and gas pipelines; transportation; oil and gas production and storage facilities; and underground gas storage facilities. All of these occur on or close to family homes, dairy farms, life-style properties, small businesses, and schools; in the midst of rural communities and near towns in Taranaki.

Sidewinder TAG Oil For sale

New Plymouth District

In the Tikorangi area Todd Energy have drilled 40 wells from 13 well sites on farmland and oil and gas is piped to McKee- Mangahewa Production Station for processing ; and Greymouth Petroleum Limited drilled at Kowhai A, B and C and Turangi A, B and C well sites; all with multiple wells and associated production stations. Near Inglewood are Greymouth Petroleum’s Kaimiro and Ngatoro and TAG Oil’s Sidewinder multiple well sites and production stations. The Sidewinder wellsite was closed down by the local council due to non-compliance. In addition there are consents granted for a well site near Norfolk Primary school serving 150 children. Similarly sized Ngaere School and Tikorangi School are close to well sites and production stations.

Copper-Moki

Stratford District

In Central Taranaki TAG Oil’s Cheal C well site is consented to drill and frack up to 10 wells near the Stratford town boundary. Cheal A (up to 16 wells); B (up to 14 wells); E (up to 10 wells); and G (up to 10 wells) well sites are close by. These wells can be drilled and reworked multiple times. New Zealand Energy Corporation’s Copper- Moki well site located nearby was prosecuted for an oil spill into the Ngaere Stream.

South Taranaki District Greymouth Petroleum

In South Taranaki groundwater and soil contamination occurred at all nine well sites at Shell Todd Kapuni gas field. They were not prosecuted. Remediation required removing thousands of cubic metres of contaminated soils. Much of South Taranaki’s drinking water comes from Kapuni Stream and bores beside the Kapuni Production Station. Resource consent has been granted for fracking to occur at a number of well sites in the area. There is testing for BTEX chemicals in the drinking water supply.