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The Urgent Need to Address Future Oil Scarcity in New Zealand
Posted by Big Gav on August 5, 2008 - 11:13am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
This is a guest post from Tim Jones of the Sustainable Energy Forum New Zealand.
About 70 people attended the joint Engineers for Social Responsibility/Sustainable Energy Forum conference on "Responding to Oil Depletion and Climate Change" in Auckland on Saturday 26 July. Most of the conference presentations, plus the conference statement and report, are now available online at: http://www.sef.org.nz/conferences.html#2008
The conference was a resounding success. Those present accepted the urgent changes we need to be talking about, the mix of cold hard facts that we as a society find hard to face up to but also the hope for the future in the examples of local action in New Zealand communities on sustainable towns, and examples from abroad. Those present at the conference were deeply concerned at the lack of urgent action by the Government and most political parties on rising oil prices, peak oil, and climate change. The conference therefore agreed the following statement, in the hope of helping raise government and community awareness, and to help build a consensus for change.
1. This conference is concerned at the potential for serious and long-term disruption of the New Zealand economy and society from rising oil prices and climate change.
2. The conference accepts that the potential threat of climate change is now widely recognised and many people are being increasingly motivated to take action to mitigate its effects, though effective action by governments is slow. However the future threat to our way of life posed by depleting oil supplies and rising prices is still barely recognised and acknowledged by officialdom and most political parties in New Zealand.
3. The need to take action to prepare for future oil shortages and much higher prices is now urgent, as this will have a major and ongoing impact on our country over the coming decade and beyond. In contrast, early climate change impacts on New Zealand (though not necessarily elsewhere) are likely to be less serious.
4. The conference accepts, on the basis of international oil industry evidence available and provided at this conference, the seriousness of oil supply, price and security issues, and the likelihood of oil scarcity within the coming decade, as well as the need to reduce climate change gas emissions from transport.
5. The conference is aware of a number of ways in which the solutions to make our communities more resilient to diminishing oil supplies and rising prices already exist, and we encourage the Government to support these measures.
6. The conference believes that there is a need to investigate and facilitate the scope for autonomous action by communities, and local government and regional authorities, to develop longer-term solutions for these issues. This could be a priority task for the new government elected at the end of this year and assisted through a participatory exercise by a commission with full authority to conduct its own inquiries.
7. In the run up to the general election, the conference calls on all political parties in New Zealand to explicitly outline how they will proactively govern to take full account of future oil depletion and climate change issues, focusing on the following:
* Volatile and rising oil prices, and future oil supply, security and price issues.
* The impact that these will have on the New Zealand economy and society
* The actions needed now to help safeguard the future of New Zealand economy and society
* How such actions will support reductions in New Zealand's climate change gas emissions from transport
* Supporting the transition of New Zealand's towns and cities, and rural communities and farms, to a new sustainable future through empowering and supporting local community action.
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Subject: Statement on Oil Depletion and Climate Change/ Text of a letter addressed to the "Organising Committee"
Dear Sirs
Thank you very much for allowing me to comment on your statement of the conference on "Oil Depletion and Climate Change". On International scale, I think that tackling climate change through limiting CO2 emission is complementary to tackling the problem of oil depletion, and who knows, may be nature for its own climatic equilibrium, is doing through (Oil fossil fuel depletion) , what the politicians have been arguing about for the last two decades?, However, and as long as oil usage continues, it is our responsibility not to let New Zealand suffers first from its eventual demise.
In addition, to measures to be taken to reduce New Zealand dependence on foreign oil by encouraging conservation and the use of alternative energy resources. I feel that the world will still depend on oil for many years to come. New Zealand government should not sit down and do nothing (while serious supply disruption may take place) but move in the direction of securing part of our oil needs directly from their supply sources (while conserving on the limited reserves existing in our shores)
As long as NZ depends solely on commercial foreign oil companies for the supply of its crude oil, NZ (like many other nations), will feel this shortage. New Zealand has never sought to secure its oil directly nor did it utalise the know-how of its new Middle Eastern citizens (some have fair acquaintance and knowledge of their home country’s oil industry) for this purpose. NZ is not making use of its excellent neutral foreign policy and the good will created by this policy in that part of the world. I feel it is high time for the NZ Government to take this matter seriously and move in the direction of forming some kind of partnership with a medium size “Oil Exploration and Field Development Company” (preferably NZ based) to try to acquire a small share in the SE Asia/ Middle East Oil ( Iraq in particular). A moderate find (Middle East standard) may be enough to secure NZ oil supplies for many years to come without the risk of facing the type of shortages envisaged and at a much cheaper price for that matter. NZ oil demand is not high (about 150,000 B/D) and we only need a small to medium size field to satisfy our requirements. If no action is taken now, NZ may be subject to blackmail and could pay great penalty to secure its requirements from the open marketplace to refine so purchased crude at Marsden Point Refinery.
The time may not be too late yet; NZ Government must invest for the future of its generations instead of waiting for things to happen by which time it may probably be too late to do anything?
I shall also be pleased if you may also publish this comment in the next additions of EnergWatch and ESR News Letter. Thank you.
Mundher Al-Saleem
Oil Products Consultant
www.oilnz.blogspot.com
mundher@xtra.co.nz