Oil drilling protesters say their boat is staying put despite several warnings to move beyond an exclusion zone around a US drill ship.
The showdown between Texas-based exploration company Anadarko and protesters in the six-vessel Oil Free Seas flotilla has been unfolding 100 nautical miles off the Taranaki coast.
The American company is looking for oil with its ship the Noble Bob Douglas and is still a day or two away from drilling in waters 1.5km deep. It says the flotilla has done nothing to affect its work.
Anadarko's drill ship and a protest boat at the site on Tuesday. Photo: GREENPEACE
Greenpeace released a radio message on Tuesday afternoon in which the captain of the Noble Bob Douglas warns protest boat the Vega to get out of a 500-metre exclusion zone.
"You are currently inside that 500-metre zone, so we are giving you guys 10 minutes to get outside that zone and then we will commence our operation."
Bunny McDiarmid, the Vega's skipper and executive director of Greenpeace, responds: "This is the sailing vessel Vega. We will not be moving. We are here in defence of our oceans, future generations, our climate and our coastlines."
New regulations mean that it is an offence to be within what is called a non-interference zone.
Former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is on the Vega and said it was still inside that boundary late on Tuesday night.
"We don't intend to leave that position. We were right on top of the drill site until the drilling ship pushed us sideways - not with physical contact - but just by broadsiding closer and closer. And by trying to keep a safe distance, it meant that we were pushed off the drill site."
The five other boats in the flotilla have remained outside the zone. Ms McDiarmid said the protesters have not been contacted by police.
Anadarko said it has been able to deploy a remote-operated vehicle to check the sea floor. Corporate affairs manager Alan Seay said although the Vega is breaching regulations, it is not threatening the drill ship's safety.
