brownlee turning coulds to woulds

here we go...

"The Government is rolling out the welcome mat to foreign oil explorers as new estimates show the country could be sitting on $60 billion of untapped black gold.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said yesterday that by 2025 the amount of now untapped oil and gas off the coast could be worth about $30b a year in export receipts.

Mr Brownlee said the tax receipts would amount to about $10b a year – enough to wipe out the current cash deficit."

What about the coulds gerry?

"The data is in a series of reports released by the Government yesterday. Chief among them is a survey of oil and gas reserves by GNS Science, which says there could be as many as 6.5b barrels of undiscovered oil in 10 areas off the coast, stretching from the Great South Basin to Cape Reinga.

GNS also believes there could be about 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the same 10 areas.

He also announced the Government was reconsidering the tax and regulatory framework of the petroleum sector to make investment more attractive for foreign oil explorers.

"New Zealand's largely unexplored petroleum resource could be one of the country's most significant economic opportunities," Mr Brownlee said. "The industry has been neglected by successive governments for far too long, and when you see the potential that's there it's sort of a little bit of a surprise."

Sure gerry we believe you.

Mr Brownlee's enthusiasm for oil exploration comes hard on the heels of moves to open up parts of the conservation estate to mining, which the minister also believes could put billions into the Crown coffers.

Mr Brownlee said the Government saw oil and gas playing a big role in getting the economy out of deficit. "We very much want to send the message that New Zealand is prospective for hydrocarbons and open for business.

"This summer would see the most oil exploration yet undertaken in New Zealand waters, and the Government wanted to encourage more.

NZ Oil and Gas said any moves to open up the possibility of joint ventures with foreign investors were good news. Drilling for oil was risky and expensive, but the potential benefits were huge.

Do you see how they do it. First make a statement around a few coulds then guestimate the supposed value from that and the next thing those coulds have turned into woulds. We would earn, it would be worth - yet these woulds are really still just coulds. Yes we would earn that if we could tap all of the potential youknowwhats.

That is how the brownlees of the world get their agenda in. There is no consideration of other factors - environment, global warming, the rights of indigenous people and all citizens - it is all about money for brownlee and his all about money is based on bullshit and a whole pile of coulds. You are a big pile of coulds gerry.

worse than useless