“AWE has also identified an incident which occurred on the floating production storage and offloading vessel Umuroa on October 21, which could be related to the oil which has been found on the Taranaki coast,” the company said.

AWE supplied a sample of Tui crude to the Maritime New Zealand authority for analysis and comparison with degraded oil that washed up on a Taranaki beach in the form of tar balls.

“AWE is working closely with New Zealand authorities, including Maritime New Zealand and the Taranaki Regional Council, to identify the nature and source of the oil,” the company said this morning.

Taranaki Regional Council, which is coordinating the cleaning of the beach, has collected about 6 cubic metres of oil-contaminated sand, understood to be the bulk of the affected area, AWE said.

New Zealand media have reported that this is AWE’s first environmental blemish and that managing director Bruce Wood is planning to visit Taranaki next week to discuss the incident, particularly how contaminated produced water from the Umuroa’s tanks might have been discharged.

Maritime New Zealand marine pollution response team manager Nick Quinn has said the environmental impact of the spill would be minimal.

The Tui area oil project is about 60km from the affected Taranaki coastline.