Statoil: No drilling deaths

Dr Paul Haremo

Norwegian oil giant Statoil says while it can't guarantee no whales and dolphins will be harmed when it carries out seismic surveying for oil off Northland's west coast, it has not seen any marine mammal deaths in its 40 years of exploration around the globe.

Statoil Vice President Exploration Dr Pal Haremo was reacting to concerns from Otago University associate professor of zoology Liz Slooten that sonar and seismic surveying for oil and gas off Northland's west coast could lead to more whale strandings and leave some species of whales and dolphins effectively deaf and blind.

International oil company Statoil is preparing to carry out testing in 9818.88 square kilometres in the Northland Basin after being granted a permit by the Government, but Dr Slooten said more safeguards needed to be put in place before the company carried out any sonar and seismic testing using air guns.

Dr Haremo said Statoil takes potential impact on marine mammals seriously and the company followed all international and local regulations wherever it operate.

"We are planning to start acquisition of seismic data in our Northland permit in December 2014. We are conducting a Marine Mammal Impact Assessment (MMIA) covering the licence area. A part of this study is to identify and mitigate risks before we start acquisition. The MMIA will be delivered to the authorities for approval prior to any seismic activity in our permit area," he said.

He said any seismic acquisition within the Statoil permit will be fully in compliance with the 2013 Code of Conduct for Minimising Acoustic Disturbance to Marine Mammals which is in line with International standards. The MMIA results would be given to the Government and if it had concerns would not let the seismic testing go ahead.

He said while there could never be any guarantee that marine mammals wold not be hurt, the company did all it could to ensure it would not happen.

"Statoil has been acquiring seismic offshore data for over 40 years and throughout this time we have not experienced any marine mammal fatalities," Dr Haremo said.

If the MMIA found areas of marine mammal habitation that was a concern, the company would keep its seismic testing away from those areas.

Statoil would also have independent, trained observers on its survey boats to watch for marine mammals.

"We are very, very experienced and at the end of the day we have never, ever, experienced any [marine mammal] fatalities. That must mean that we are doing something right," he said.