The Taranaki Regional Council will investigate allegations that Origin Energy has failed to report leaks at some of its oil and gas production facilities.

Sally McDow, a former compliance manager at the big Australia-based fuel firm, is alleging a long-running "cover-up" of oil and gas well leaks across New Zealand and Australia.

SUPPLIED Origin Energy whistleblower Sally McDow.

These include gas leaks at the company's South Taranaki Rimu, Kauri and Manutahi (RKM) production facilities.

McDow has filed a 29-page statement of claim in an Australian court alleging governance failures in New Zealand and Australia, including problems she said weren't reported either in Origin's internal database or to regulators.

McDow is also claiming her co-workers were instructed not to cooperate with an investigation by accounting firm EY into the allegedly dangerous compliance failures, The Australian newspaper reports.

Origin told The Australian it "rejects any assertion that recent sales of certain upstream assets were not conducted appropriately".

The company said it would vigorously defend McDow's claim.

McDow, who lives in Brisbane, also alleges Origin's fields at Surat, Queensland, leaked oil into freshwater aquifers.

In 2010, a small pipeline at Origin's Rimu production station was found to be leaking into the unnamed tributary of the Manawapou Stream.

"The immediate effects of the spill were adequately mitigated and an extended mitigation programme was proposed including riparian planting," a council report said. The station's environmental performance was downgraded from "high" to "good" as a result.

Sarah Roberts of community group Taranaki Energy Watch said the whistleblower's revelations were not unexpected: "The possibility of a cover-up of oil and gas well leaks in Taranaki is extremely concerning, however comes as no surprise," she said. "It has been a worry in the past that significant leaks have been found randomly by members of the public."

Roberts said if Origin had withheld information, that would be very disappointing. "The independent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment raised issues with the oil and gas regulation in New Zealand in 2014 and called on the government to provide national rules," she said.

That hadn't happened. "Many of these oil and gas well sites in Taranaki are near our homes, on our farms and in our communities. This is not good enough."

South Taranaki Council deputy mayor Ian Armstrong said if the allegations had substance he would be extremely concerned. "I'd like to know the ramifications and be informed if there were issues," he said.

Taranaki Regional Council's director of environmental quality, Gary Bedford, said the council took any suggestion or allegation of non-compliance with the Resource Management Act very seriously. "The information provided in this case is very generalised in nature, but we will investigate further as we gain access to any specifics that can be determined," he said.

The Council had rigorous compliance monitoring programmes, including independent, frequent and random site inspections and collection of environmental samples and data by its own officers, Bedford said.

"Any additional data to be supplied by consent-holders is carefully audited," he said. "The Council does not rely on self-reporting by operators. All monitoring information is a matter of public reporting and record."



Bedford said a number of other agencies, both local and national, were also involved in regulation of aspects of the oil and gas industry.

"Because of our monitoring, we are confident that there has been no situation involving Origin's activities in Taranaki with significant environmental effects."

McDow, a lawyer, joined Origin from the banking industry in 2011. She was then promoted to "upstream compliance manager", monitoring compliance in New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam.

She claims her bosses attempted to cover issues up as a further audit loomed. She also alleges she was pressured to accept changes to a spreadsheet she had prepared for management outlining the risks identified.

"I feel I am in an inappropriate position with multiple competing and conflicting agendas from ­senior management in 'Ex-Upstream' and I don't feel comfortable being involved in meetings," she wrote in an internal email.

Origin said there has been three internal investigation into her complaints. McDow's allegations and complaints included management bullying – what she described as yelling, swearing and the monitoring of her ­toilet breaks and how much water she drank.

Speaking to Fairfax, an Origin spokesperson said McDow first raised issues about compliance in connection with HR conversations she was having with management. "She made a series of compliance claims and there were three independent investigations into her claims ... none substantiated those claims."

In October, after nearly five years with the company, McDow was made redundant when she lodged proceedings against Origin.

The same month, the New Zealand RKM oil and gas fields were sold to UK-listed Mosman Oil and Gas for A$10 million.

Greenpeace raised a red flag about dozens of spill-related incidents at oil fields off Taranaki. Figures obtained under the Official Information Act showed there were 66 reported incidents at Taranaki's offshore oil facilities between October 2011 and August this year, most very small.

Simon Boxer, a senior energy campaigner with Greenpeace, said he was surprised at how often incidents were occurring and suggested systemic failures were to blame.