By Rachel Tiffen

Global oil giant Shell is joining the hunt for offshore oil and gas in New Zealand waters, taking a 50 percent share in a current venture.

It is punting on drilling in the Great South Basin, a huge area south of New Zealand.

Historically, these waters have been deemed too risky to drill.

But in 2007 the Government gave the go-ahead for prospecting in three parts of the Great South Basin. Fifty million dollars later, even with Shell on board, New Zealand oil on tap is still not a definite.

“It's much too early for us to commit to drilling because we haven't refined it much after 3D Seismic, that's a different ballpark,” says OMV managing director Peter Zeilinger.

Major stakeholder OMV says it is about being realistic and 3D Seismic surveys are a must.

“It's not a gold rush we're in, it's a very careful exploration process,” he says.

The seismic mapping will be done by the Polarcus Alima, an 89-metre boat with environmental monitoring equipment and a marine biologist on board.

The Polarcus Alima will cover about 300,000 square kilometres.

But it is not the testing phase that is causing concern, as Shell plugs up a 31 by four kilometre spill off the coast of Scotland.

“It's unfortunate that we've had the oil spill in the North Sea, I don't know what the cause of that is at the moment,” says Shell New Zealand’s chairman, Robert Jager.

Shell is promising robust safety and emergency responses if drilling happens in the Great South Basin.

“Shell has developed a capping system, a modular capping system that fits on all of our deep water wells globally,” he says.

But the Greens have little faith.

“The oil companies think there is money to be made here, and perhaps they're right, but unfortunately we will be carrying the environmental risk,” says Greens offshore drilling spokesperson, David Clendon.

Shell says if there is a problem it will cover the cost.

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