You might be aware there has been a petroleum conference on these past few days in Auckland. In fact the irony might not have escaped you; it’s been on at SkyCity.

How dark is that. The evil fuel barons talking petrol at the den of iniquity, not that I believe any of that, but I am sure there’s a queue of people who do.

Many of them might have been part of the protests outside the venue. There have been two protests, a noisy one over the weekend with the usual placards, bad puns, hired rabble, and the silent one which I much preferred.

I am not against protest, but as in all things in life, things should be done with a level of dignity and decorum, and a silent protest strikes me as more effective and ever so slightly classier than the noise makers.

Anyway, both are against deep sea drilling. The Government want more deep sea drilling.

Why? Because we haven’t worked out to run the world on dishwashing liquid or water, or sun, or nitrogen, or hydrogen or helium or any of the other 'ums'. We need good old fashioned oil and petrol.

Before they pump it, they have to find it, and this is where the initial money is. There is money in giving people the right to come and have a look.

It’s always struck me as odd that for years we bemoaned Australia’s luck when it came to minerals and exploration. We envied their wealth; we bemoaned all those that left for the big red land to seek their fortune.

And yet bang for buck...we have more resources than that. They do. Per square kilometre we’re richer than them and yet we’ve never really tapped into it.

Why not? Well, if you listen to the protestors, it’s because it could go wrong and when it does it’s a disaster. They cite the Gulf of Mexico of course, which us a good disaster to cite, given it was a complete fiasco.

But it was also one of very few when you look at the amount of drilling in the world and you look at the bits that go wrong.

Drilling is not to be feared, the same way planes shouldn’t be feared when occasionally they go down. Or life shouldn’t be feared because occasionally people get unfairly ill.

We are not cowboys when it comes to this. We are not the wild west, we do not seek disaster, we’re not rapers and pillagers. A country is a business and business is about paying your way and earning your money. You can be against drilling or oil if you want, but be honest about it. Just say you don’t like oil, but when you do that and the question then comes: 'So what do we replace it with?'

The simple truth is we have no answer.

We might, but right now we don’t.

And for as long as we don’t – we keep drilling.