Conflict over road maintenance during test drilling aired at council hearing

In a hearing at Stratford District Council on Monday, Tag Oil said it would consider pulling out of a proposed well site off Cross Rd near the town if it were forced to pay up to $1 million for a road upgrade before drilling began.

The figure was disputed by council officers who priced the required works at $380,000.

The application for the well site is being decided by a commisioner, Greg Carlyon, who gave Tag Oil and the council until the end of the week to identify the reasons for the vastly different costs and reach an agreement.

Failing this, he would issue a ruling.

The council had recommended a full road upgrade, which Tag Oil's New Zealand manager Randy Toone described as being "overkill".

The company says they are happy to pay for the full upgrade should the well become economically viable, but are not prepared to do so in advance.

Director of assets for Stratford District Council Sven Hanne says that council roading staff see their role as being two-fold. Firstly, to ensure that the local road remains fit for residents and other road users to use it for its intended purpose in "a safe manner".

Secondly, he says they have a duty to ensure that ratepayers don't "end up paying for repairs or upgrades to roads that were never designed for the use that the oil company is planning to inflict on them".

Mr Hanne points out that the type of consent that this application comes under, a limited notified consent, means that very few people are consulted on the matter, with only people within a close distance of the well site being consulted. "Other road users who will get just as much traffic impact won't get to have a say," he says.

In a decision released on Friday on a previous hearing concerning a similiar roading issue in regards to a proposed site on Rowan Rd, the commisioner, Michael Lester, decided in favour of the oil company. He said with the chances of a successul productive site being "only 10 per cent", it was "unreasonable to require the applicant to reconstruct the length of Rowan Rd before the site being proven and in production".

Mr Hanne says that decision will lead to what he describes as a "piecemeal approach to road maintenance", which is not in the best interests of ratepayers.

He adds that the reason for the requirement of the upgrade upfront is based on the fact that wellsite establishment causes a significant amount of heavy traffic that does severe damage to local roads and affects safety if not addressed upfront through an upgrade and widening.