Protesters were particularly concerned about the lack of support if problems occurred, with specialist help about three weeks away.
"If something goes wrong with the drilling there it could be a major disaster like in the Gulf of Mexico and all we've got in New Zealand to deal with any clean up is three boats about 30ft long ... That's absolutely ridiculous," Mr Shierny said.
Anadarko owned 25 per cent of the Deepwater Horizon drilling site that exploded in April 2010, causing a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
About 50 people turned up to welcome the Putangitangi at the Town Basin on Thursday and Mine Watch Northland spokesman Tim Howard said it was important to send a message that risky drilling was not welcome. "This presents huge risks to our ocean, the impact if anything goes wrong is absolutely enormous," Mr Howard said.
He said such drilling would only benefit big corporations with the vast majority of profits going overseas.