Wednesday 20 April 2011

On the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster the EPMU and MUNZ say the Key government must apply lessons from it and the Pike River tragedy and act without delay to ensure workers have a stronger voice in offshore oil exploration safety, including comprehensive “safety case” and legal liability provisions [1].

The government also needs to legislate for best international regulatory standards and practices, enforce them effectively by increasing the number of inspectors and remove legal uncertainties about companies’ insurance liability obligations.

“The Pike River and Deepwater Horizon tragedies were reminders that workplace safety is not negotiable,” says Andrew Little, joint spokesman for the NZ section of the Trans Tasman Oil & Gas Alliance (TTOGA) of trade unions.

“New Zealand deserves the strictest levels of safety, accident prevention and response, and a comprehensive environmental safeguards regime in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) including a dedicated rescue vessel and the latest well-capping technology.”

“According to the Petroleum Exploration Production Association it would take weeks to bring the latest oil well-capping technology over from North America. One lesson from the Pike River tragedy is that it took more time and money to bring a gagging machine and trained operators over from Australia than if there had been one in New Zealand with local trained operators. It’s a no brainer that we need well-capping technology here.”

“Too often the free market culture says ‘increase productivity and make more profit’ but this devalues the worker’s voice on health and safety issues which isn’t good enough.”

“It’s also about a sensible recognition that some industries are inherently dangerous, such as oil, gas and mining, and people working in them are entitled to the best possible protections going.”

“New Zealand has only one inspector overseeing safety in offshore oil exploration, which is a grave concern after the Pike River and Deepwater Horizon tragedies.”

“The government simply must increase the level of health and safety staffing and monitoring in the most hazardous sectors such as oil, gas and mining.”

“A single Department of Labour oil well inspector monitors health and safety at seven New Zealand installations and is supposed to be guarding against disasters such as the rig explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico last year.”

“Australia has one inspector for every three installations, Britain has one for every two and Norway has one per installation. Yet the sole New Zealand inspector is responsible for seven installations as well as all onshore petroleum and geothermal activities, which beggars belief.”

"The Department of Labour inspectorate needs more inspectors and support staff to bring the level here in line with Norway."

[1] The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) represents workers in the oil, gas and mining sectors and the Maritime Union of NZ (MUNZ) represents workers in the maritime and shipping sectors. Together they are the NZ section of the Trans Tasman Oil & Gas Alliance (TTOGA).

Key points from the EPMU submission to MED’s offshore petroleum health, safety and environmental legislation review (February 2011):

• EPMU believes that any Environmental Regulatory Framework needs to be consistent for all NZ waters. Currently the RMA covers Territorial Waters but the EEZ and Extended Continental Shelf have no environmental protection.

• The Deepwater Horizon explosion has shown how woefully inadequate liability insurance levels are when faced with an environmental disaster of this magnitude. New Zealand has not ratified the Bunkers Convention, Supplementary Fund Protocol 2003 or LLMC (Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims) Protocol which will only leave us with an even greater debt. EPMU believes New Zealand should immediately ratify these conventions and protocols as Australia has done.

• As global oil and gas reserves get tighter, New Zealand’s largely untouched waters will become a stronger focus from all corners of the globe so we need to get the institutional arrangements and regulations in place now to protect both our environment and the workers on these installations.

• EPMU would also like to see an investigation into the health and safety requirements should an oil spill actually occur within New Zealand. The Deepwater Horizon report highlighted how inadequately prepared both government and industry was to contain or respond to this crisis. The problem is not only the effects on the environment but also the impact on the health and safety of the workers involved in the clean up and also the communities affected by the spill. New Zealand has to acknowledge there is always the possibility of a spill of similar magnitude in our waters and, therefore, needs to ensure processes are in place to provide adequate clean up.

• We only have to look at the Deepwater Horizon blow out to see the importance of having sufficient funding and expertise to ensure that any company operating within our waters does so safely.

• Both the Review Report and the Deepwater Horizon Report talk about removing arbitrary offshore boundaries and having one singular body responsible for the regulation of health and safety aspects of offshore oil and gas activities that is separate to the authority responsible for the allocation of permits for exploration/drilling within any of our waters. EPMU concurs.

ENDS

© Scoop Media