Withdrawal threat in oil ship row
PA Wellington An American company, wanting to search for oil in the Great South Basin, may have to withdraw unless a dispute over manning with the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild can be settled. Hunt International Petroleum’s agent in New Zealand, Mr James Young, said yesterday that the company was not considering backing out of the project, but warned that there was always that danger. The guild wanted a New Zealand master in a Hunt survey ship while in New Zealand waters, said Mr Young, but under American law the master has to be American.
He said that the guild was playing with fire as Hunt was a Texan company and was apt to make quick decisions. If it suddenly decided it had had enough it could withdraw, he said. Three-way negotiations are under way to solve the dispute, between the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, the guild, and Mr Young. The guild has suggested a compromise by having two masters — an American, plus a New Zealand sailing master. But that has been rejected outright by Hunt.
“We are in a situation where we have very little room to manouevre. It is a classic situation. We just cannot have two masters,”
said Mr Young. A ship’s crew needed one master to look to for decisions, he said. “If the guild wants us to continue looking for oil — and its members will have quite a bit of employment ouf of this — it must accommodate us.” Mr Young saw Mr Bolger last week to put Hunt’s side, and said that it was in the Government’s interest to help sort out the problem, as the commitment and money involved in just exploring for oil were “fantastic.” He said that there were no new meetings planned, but he was reporting to the Texan company on a daily basis.
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Press, 6 July 1983, Page 4
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310Withdrawal threat in oil ship row Press, 6 July 1983, Page 4
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