The Green Party is calling on the Government to put deep water oil exploration on hold until the exact cause of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe is identified and ways are found to prevent the same thing happening elsewhere.
"The disaster in the United States shows that the deep water oil drilling industry has not solved the environmental and safety issues involved," co-leader Russel Norman said today.
"Yet we are rushing to drill in deep water to the south of New Zealand."
The Government has initiated an oil drilling exploration programme in the deep waters of the Great South Basin.
Dr Norman said the basin was home to marine mammals and sensitive marine ecosystems that would be damaged by a similar incident to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
The BP rig exploded on April 20 and since then between 68 million and 150m litres of crude oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.
The US government has described it as the worst environmental disaster the country has faced, and so far attempts to cap the broken pipe have failed.
