Tararua oil and gas bonanza possible Tararua oil and gas bonanza possible
MATHEW GROCOTT
Tararua's mayor is not expecting the district to be swarmed with applications for oil and gas exploration following a government report on opportunities on the east coast.
No-one knows how much oil and gas there is between Tararua and Gisborne to the north, but the East Coast Oil and Gas Development Study found that in the best-case scenario it would be worth billions of dollars and up to 2300 jobs along the east coast of the lower North Island.
However, the report produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment warns that until exploratory wells are drilled "there is a wide range of uncertainty about whether recovery would be economic and about what the potential impacts would be".
Tararua Mayor Roly Ellis said the report spelled out for councils and the community what the economic benefits and costs of oil and gas exploration were, work which had not been done previously.
Any extraction of oil and gas in Tararua is likely to use fracking, a technique already used in Taranaki. Also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracking is a technique where fluids containing chemicals and sand are injected into rocks to break them up.
TAG Oil has sought consent for two exploratory wells near Dannevirke.
Mr Ellis said he did not expect a flood of attempts to follow suit.
"I don't expect a rush of consents, TAG Oil will take it slowly to work through it."
When consents for further drilling did arrive the council would consider them, he said.
"We're not going to rush into anything, we will go at a sensible and steady pace."
Oil and gas had the potential to add another element to the economy in Tararua, he said.
"We're very, very much a rural, farming area. Oil and gas would obviously offer more to our community. If such a thing took place we have to look at these things very seriously. We can't chuck them out the door because some people don't want them.
"There is always a risk for everything you do in this world, we have to negate those risks."
A group of Dannevirke landowners opposed to fracking in the area is being formed and was understood to be holding a meeting this week.
One of the common concerns about fracking was the potential for the chemicals used to get into groundwater.
As part of the report released yesterday the locations of known aquifers and potential oil and gas sites were mapped out. In Tararua the two zones did not cross.
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