3 May 2014

East Coast oil and gas survey planned

12:12 pm on 3 May 2014

An Australian company is planning an oil and gas survey the length of the east coast of New Zealand.

Searcher Seismic, which is based in Perth, has applied for the right to do two-dimensional seismic tests from the Gisborne coast down to the sub-Antarctic islands.

According to the application to New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, the survey would involve a sound-recording device being towed across multiple potential oil and gas basins.

The agency says it recently changed the rules to allow companies doing such surveys to keep the data and sell it to clients for up to 15 years before it must be made public.