Therefore, when Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee is giving out assurances that industry best practice will be observed and would be enforced with respect to the likes of Petrobras and Exxon-Mobil, he is uttering empty assurances in a void.
Gordon Campbell unravels the tangled spinning around the Rena and it's oily excrescence and the attempts by National to distance that oil spill from the drilling rigs they plan to litter the off-shore with.
At the level of technical expertise, no one knows how to devise BOPs (blowout preventers) guaranteed to work at such depths and in such open sea conditions. In addition, there are no international or local framework of design standards and operating procedures that can be enforced, even if there was a will to do so.
As well as quoting the relevant passage from the Bunker Convention, Gordon Campbell makes a number of deeply concerning observations with regard the proposed Petrobras activity in the Raukumara Basin and it applies too, to the Great South Basin off our southern shore:
"That leaves communities on East Cape with even less protection – regarding liability and insurance – than the people of Tauranga.. (In the coming weeks, this column will be seeking to clarify whether the legal position regarding oil platforms has changed substantially in the ensuing 18 months.)
The other main ground for concern is a purely practical one. The response to the Rena grounding has given New Zealanders no reason to believe there would be a properly equipped and co-ordinated response from local and central government if and when there was a major oil spill triggered by Petrobras operations in the Raukumura Basin."
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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