Oil means Far North jobs aplenty

Te Au Au of Kawakawa at a Statoil protest in Whangarei on Friday. The Norwegian company says oil drilling would bring jobs to the Far North.

Statoil would run any operation for drilling off Northland's west coast from New Plymouth, but the company says there would be plenty of jobs and work created in the Far North if it does get to the stage of drilling for oil.

Norwegian oil giant Statoil has been given two licences to explore for oil in the Te Reinga Basin and has completed a seismic survey of more than 10,000 square kilometres of seabed in the area where it hopes to find oil.

That data is now being analysed to see if it was worth starting to drill.

However, the plans have been opposed by groups in Northland because of the potential environmental risk and concerns that it would not create much economic wealth or jobs for the region.

Hedda Felin, Statoil's vice-president of Safety and Sustainability and Brynjulv Klove, the oil giant's New Zealand manager, have been in Northland this week meeting with iwi representatives, business and community leaders and yesterday met with Northland Regional Councillors and the Te Tai Tokerau Maori Advisory Committee to get a clear view of the regulations governing petroleum exploration, as well as Statoil's plans in the region.

Mr Klove said New Plymouth, which was the centre of New Zealand's oil exploration industry, already had the infrastructure in place to run the operation and the company would not be constructing a new port in the Far North to do so.

But, he said, there would still be plenty of jobs created in the Far North if the company found it viable to drill off the coast.

"There will be skilled labour needed, the excellent Kaitaia Airport will be used (to transport workers to and from the platforms and to bring workers into the region) and there will be increased work in the area through the extra people staying, more work for engineering and mechanical services and support industries."

The number and types of jobs needed would not be known until it was known what was below the surface.

Mr Klove said the company would support educational opportunities for people in the Far North to work in the industry, but again the type of training it would provide would not be known until all the data was analysed, and a decision made whether to proceed with drilling.

Ms Felin said the company respected the different views on the company and Mr Klove said while there was opposition to the plans from some Maori sectors in the north, he did not believe the majority of Maori in the region were against the company's plans.

Ms Felin said safety was the company's main concern and it would not go ahead with any exploration if it was unsafe.