Some three oil rigs will be working in New Zealand coastal and offshore waters over the coming summer, drilling multiple exploration and production wells, and in one case drilling in deep-water Taranaki for the first time, and some six onshore rigs. Close to 100 new wells are expected to be drilled in the next two years.
Long said there was a "new breed of responsible, safe drillers" in the industry, but there was room for improvement.
The industry was heading into a period of relatively high activity and it was an ideal time to implement an industry-wide "competency framework" to improve not only regulatory compliance but also skills competence.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union senior national industrial officer Paul Tolich said there was a trend for experienced onshore drilling staff to be poached for work on offshore rigs and that "there could be a lot more training on technical aspects".
The session facilitator, Colin Finnegan of global engineering services procurement company SPD, said there were encouraging signs that expatriate New Zealanders were being attracted home by the prospect of a continuous programme of work for the next couple of years, which would likely see up to $2 billion spent in New Zealand waters and onshore.
While the scale of activity in New Zealand made it hard for the industry to compete with Australia, where thousands of wells are drilled annually, there were professional challenges in the New Zealand environment which were attractive, said Todd Energy's general manager, operations, Andrew Clennett.
For example, Todd's current programme involving a 5000-metre-deep managed pressure well in the Mangahewa field was "world-class stuff", while New Zealand's working conditions were favourable compared with Australia's. "You're 30 minutes up the road, not working in 35-degree heat and depending on a dodgy satellite call to speak to your family."
Tolich said the industry was a source of highly paid work, but vulnerable to criticism by a fearful public, with critics "just waiting for a decent mishap that will confirm their views".
In a separate session, Labour Party energy spokeswoman Moana Mackey made it clear her party supported the oil and gas industry, saying it was too valuable to abandon, and skirted questions on whether Labour might seek to curtail deep-sea exploration and production.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said he was opposed to finding and exploiting any new oil and gas deposits since any such finds could only contribute to "runaway climate change".
When pressed for clarity on what was "in" or "out" from a Greens policy perspective, Norman ruled out deep-sea drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, apparently leaving onshore and shallow water offshore drilling on the table.