The Green Party says the revelation an Austrian oil giant plans to drill off the Otago coast is "bad news" for the planet and shows last year's ban on new exploration needs to be strengthened.
It was revealed in the Otago Daily Times this morning Austrian oil giant OMV has unveiled one of the most ambitious gas and oil drilling programmes proposed in New Zealand.
It plans possibly three exploration and seven follow-up appraisal wells off Otago's coast in the Great South Basin.
OMV has applied to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for a marine discharge consent to release contaminants to sea, the application being made public today.
OMV said in its application the GSB exploration and appraisal drilling programme
potentially included the drilling of a number of wells located within its permit PEP 50119.