• Government should immediately rescind oil and gas leases and permanently protect Bight
• If BP can’t produce an acceptable drilling plan, then other companies will fare no better
• All remaining oil and gas companies will face increasing community opposition
All oil and gas companies should follow BP’s lead and leave the Great Australian Bight after the British petroleum giant announced today it was quitting its operations in the Bight before attempting drilling, the Wilderness Society said today.
Australia’s offshore oil and gas regulator, NOPSEMA, has sent back BP’s application to drill in the Bight three times.
“If BP with all its experience cannot produce an acceptable drilling plan for NOPSEMA, the remaining companies exploring in the Bight will be wasting their shareholders’ money trying to pursue this folly,” said Wilderness Society National Director Lyndon Schneiders.
“This decision shows that it’s too expensive to establish the significant and costly risk management and clean up capacity infrastructure needed to protect our communities from the enormous spill risks associated with drilling in this part of the world. Clearly this is a far too high cost oil basin for any oil company to consider exploiting.
“Chevron, Santos, Murphy and Karoon, which received its permit just last week, will face the same massive costs and increasing community opposition that BP experienced. We call on these companies to follow BP’s lead and leave the Bight and the communities surrounding the Bight in peace.
“The Australian Government must now recognise that deepwater exploration drilling cannot be undertaken safely in the rough waters of the Great Australian Bight, or without presenting unacceptable risks to its unique marine environment. It must now step in and terminate BP’s leases and rescind all exploration permits in the Bight Basin.
“The fact is that drilling here is far too dangerous for our environment and our communities and our Great Australian Bight needs to be permanently protected from the risks inherently associated with oil and gas exploration.
“We should not be opening up entire new oil and gas precincts when the world already has enough oil reserves let alone coal and gas reserves to take the world global temperature rise above 2 degrees Celsius, let alone the 1.5oC mark of the Paris climate agreement that has just been ratified.”
Wilderness Society South Australia Director Peter Owen said: “We should not be expanding the fossil fuel industry into pristine treacherous seas where the risk of spills is far greater than we’ve seen before. A rapid transition away from this industry is our only hope for a liveable climate.”
“The Great Australian Bight waters are deeper, more treacherous and more remote than the Gulf of Mexico, where BP was responsible for 800 million litres of oil spewing into the Gulf for 87 days in 2010. Waves in the Bight in winter are six times bigger than the waves in the Gulf of Mexico around the time of BP’s disaster. Even in summer Bight waves are four times higher.
“The Great Australian Bight’s pristine waters are a haven for 36 species of whales and dolphins, including the world’s most important nursery for the endangered southern right whale as well as many humpback, sperm, blue and beak whales. It’s also Australia’s most important sea lion nursery and supports seals, orcas, giant cuttlefish and some of Australia’s most important fisheries.
“BP’s spill modelling shows a spill from an uncontained blowout from its proposed Stromlo-1 well is guaranteed to impact the South Australian coast and could hit Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island in 15 days and Adelaide in 20 days. The Karoon lease issued just last week is even closer to Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln and its important tuna fishing industry.
“It’s time to end the dangerous fiasco of oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight.
“As conservationists, we have been proud to work as part of the community to ensure that BP was never able to roll the dice off our shores and risk the oceans, beaches and marine wildlife that support our coastal industries, economies and lifestyles.”
Vica Bayley Tasmanian Campaign Manager The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc.
