Media release – Australian Marine Conservation Society, 1 September 2023
Bass Strait test drilling oil spill could impact as far north as NSW
An oil spill from American fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips’ test drilling program west of Bass Strait could have major impacts as far north as Jervis Bay on the New South Wales coast, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said today after the company released part of its draft Environment Plan to start its public consultation.
A map from ConocoPhillips’ EP shows an oil spill from an uncontained wellhead blowout in one of its proposed test drilling areas could also have major impacts on all the Victorian coast, King Island, most of the Tasmanian coast and the South Australian coast. A spill could have impacts further afield as the map does not show oil spill concentrations that would result in the closure of fisheries. A spill could have lethal impacts on marine life in Bass Strait, along most of Victoria’s coast and Tasmania’s west coast. The test drilling operational areas extend to within 19 kilometres of Victoria’s south-west coast and within 27 km of Tasmania’s King Island.
AMCS Oil and Gas Campaign Manager Louise Morris said: “An oil spill from ConocoPhillips’ test drilling program could be devastating for Australia’s most populated coast, from South Australia across Victoria to NSW, as well as Tasmania and King Island. What are called low impacts would necessitate active beach clean-up operations. What are described as moderate impacts would be lethal impacts for marine life in the sea and on the shoreline.
“ConocoPhillips’ draft plan details the large footprints of its test drilling areas, which include the Zeehan Commonwealth Marine Park as well as critical calving ground for the endangered southern right whale and critical feeding grounds for the endangered blue whale. That’s not to mention the 30 other species of whales and dolphins we know come through these waters.
“Australia’s south-eastern seas contain some of the richest, most diverse life on the planet, from the warm temperate waters around South Australia, Victoria and NSW to the cool temperate waters around Tasmania. They are full of marine treasures, from seals, southern right whales, blue whales and bluefin tuna to threatened kelp forests and unique deep-sea corals. The vast majority of the marine life in these waters are found nowhere else on Earth.
“Test drilling operations are a high-risk part of oil and gas exploration, as tragically demonstrated by the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, when 800 million litres of oil spewed into the gulf for 87 days, killing or harming hundreds of thousands of fish, birds, turtles, whales and dolphins, and destroying the Gulf’s economy.
“Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry is not immune to such accidents. Just a year before the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, a blowout in a wellhead in the Montara oil field 200km off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast led to more than 34 million litres of oil spewing into the Timor Sea for 74 days, destroying fisheries, seaweed farms and people’s health in West Timor.
“Just last year, Australian gas giant Santos was ordered to stop drilling in north-west Australia because of failure in a blowout preventer, whose failure led to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Do we really need that risk off Australia’s highly populated south-east coast?
“Australians don’t want oil and gas exploration and drilling in our southern seas. In the past decade communities have stopped BP, Chevron and Equinor from drilling in the Great Australian Bight, they have opposed proposed gas exploration off the coast of Sydney, Newcastle and the Central Coast, and there is a growing campaign against ConocoPhillips’ plans with fishers, surfers and residents joining together in protests across Victoria, Tasmania and King Island. Just last week it was revealed that more than 30,000 people had made submissions to offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA over a proposal by TGS and SLB-Schlumberger to conduct seismic blasting in the same region looking for oil and gas.
“We cannot allow more oil and gas industrialisation in Australia’s south-east seas, where marine life is already experiencing multiple threats, including climate change, with the waters there warming 3-4 times the global average.”
“The draft Environmental Plan does not give enough detail on the areas that would be impacted by a wellhead blowout and spill, although what it does show is that the environment that may be affected is massive. This threat cannot be underplayed.”