The protesters, however, are demanding an end to all new oil and gas operations.

"Oil is wrecking our climate and we need to wean ourselves off oil," Amanda Larsson, campaigner for Greenpeace told Newshub at the protest.

"The oil industry was hoping to come here and quietly make plans to drill more oil on land and sea here in New Zealand. We've shone a spotlight on that and not let them make those plans quietly, because we're here to say that if we're to have a future, oil can have no future."

The protest is being co-ordinated by the People's Climate Rally, who say it's significant that the event is being held in Taranaki.

"Taranaki has long, bitter experience with the environmental, health and personal impacts from oil and gas activities including drilling, flaring and fracking. For many Māori this is seen as a continuation of colonisation," spokesperson Emily Tuhi-Ao Bailey said in a statement issued by the People's Climate Rally.



Minister of Energy and Resources Judith Collins was due to give the opening address and announce the Block Offer at 9am.

She tweeted that the protesters preventing the kaikaranga from entering the venue, but Greenpeace and Shaun Keenan, the leader of Ngāti Te Whiti's delegation, say that's not true.



"Greenpeace has stopped Ngāti Te Whiti kaikaranga from entering the Petroleum Conference. #totally disrespectful", Ms Collins tweeted, referring to the woman who calls visitors onto a marae or venue at the beginning of a pōwhiri.