Oil and gas researcher digs deep in Taranaki to uncover local views on industry

Wednesday, 20 March 2019

The future of oil and gas in Taranaki is a polarising topic on which the local community holds strong views, a Canadian anthropologist has found during a six-month stay in the region.

University of Alberta graduate Anna Bettini​ interviewed a cross section of people for her PhD thesis on the social and cultural effects of the oil and gas sector in Taranaki.

'I realised after I arrived that the future of oil and gas in Taranaki produced many different views,' she said. 'It is a polarising subject.

'My goal was to interview 50 people but I was able to make 42 interviews and I will interview another five by Skype when I return to Canada next week.

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'It was a big goal of mine and I was pleased to be able to gather comment from a wide range of people about the industry, and how future changes will affect them.'

Bettini will present a paper on some of her findings at an oil and gas sector conference in Arizona in May.

She expected to finish the thesis in 18 months, after which it will become publicly available.

Among the individuals and groups interviewed were Taranaki district and regional councillors, and mayors, industry representatives, engineers and production staff, environmentalists, iwi, industry lobby groups, government departments, and local residents.

For some people it is difficult to reconcile the government's ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, she said.

'The oil and gas sector in Taranaki has been here for a long time and has become ingrained into the culture.

'It has produced employment and it will be a challenge for many when there is no more exploration.'

Bettini said the closeness of farm dwellings to gas production wells was the opposite of what she experienced in Alberta, an oil-rich region.

'In Alberta oil wells are a long way from housing and farmland,' she said.

'There are some who have been concerned with fracking techniques, and with the close proximity of gas production stations to houses, and this had caused them stress.

'They see what has happened overseas and don't want it to happen in Taranaki.'

Others were concerned with the environmental effects using natural gas to produce hydrogen, and the long-term use of fossil fuels by large dairy and petrochemical industries, she said.

​'I was told regulations were stronger here to avoid major environmental damage, and Taranaki did not seem to have a history of irresponsible operators.

'There is a broad level of trust between companies, councils and communities to do the right thing although some think the relationship between the community and councils should be closer, with councils taking a neutral stance during mediations.'