Consultation on Oil and Gas Guidelines
The Minister for the Environment Amy Adams has announced that consultation will take place on the draft guidelines for Managing Environmental Effects of Petroleum Development Activities (including Hydraulic Fracturing).
The consultation is not open to the public. The Ministry is specifically targeting NGOs, local councils, iwi and the extractive industry. This includes groups such as Straterra, Fish and Game, Greenpeace, Forest and Bird and the Petroleum Extraction and Production Association of New Zealand.
The purpose of the guidelines is to provide clarity on the roles of central and local government on the management of hydraulic fracturing. The guidelines’ focus is on land based oil and gas because to date hydraulic fracturing has only taken place on land. The document:
- Summarises central and local government’s responsibilities for regulating oil and gas well development;
- Describes the phases of the well life cycle (from site selection, to well abandonment);
- Describes key environmental effects that need to be understood to ensure consistent regulation of the oil and gas industry; and
- Provides New Zealand examples of planning frameworks for considering hydraulic fracturing related matters.
The guidelines discuss offshore hydraulic fracturing but only in a marginal sense in terms of the regulatory framework that is involved with it.
More information on the guidelines is available on the MfE website and the Minister’s announcement can be found here.
If you would like more information on these guidelines, or want to know how it may affect you, please contact one of our specialist Resource Management team.
PDF version : Consultation on Oil and Gas Guidelines