Community, environmental and First Nations groups are relieved that their years of campaigning to protect marine life has forced a multinational gas exploration company to withdraw its seismic blasting plan. Sarah Hathway reports.
National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA)
STOP PRESS: Santos was ordered by the Federal Court on November 2 to stop its Barossa pipeline work after Tiwi Traditional Owner won an injunction. Justice Charlesworth found in favour of the court hearing the case, bought by Jikilaruwu man Simon Munkara, to stop work on the pipeline work because it would breach environmental regulations.
Gunditjmara ocean defenders organised against proposed gas exploration and seismic blasting of more than 55,000 square kilometers of the Otway Basin. Jordan AK reports.
First Nations people told a protest that they did not give consent for Woodside's seismic testing for a mega gas project. Chris Jenkins reports.
Santos is “fighting tooth and nail” to argue it should not have to consult Traditional Owners of the Sea Country it wants to drill in. Pip Hinman reports.
Chevron has become the second big oil company to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight off the South Australian coast, a year after BP cancelled its plans to drill.
Oil companies say the Bight has similar potential to the Gulf of Mexico, site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which was the largest marine oil spill in history and killed 11 people.
BP announced on October 11 that it has abandoned plans for a $1.4 billion program to explore for oil in the Great Australian Bight, off South Australia.
The British petroleum giant said the decision, which delighted environmental groups, was made because the project was not economically viable. It said it would instead focus on projects it could exploit in the short-to-medium term.
Just-released modelling from BP has revealed that an oil spill from an uncontained blowout on its proposed Stromlo-1 well is guaranteed to impact the South Australian coast. It is possible that anywhere across the southern Australian coast could be impacted, from Western Australia across to Tasmania and NSW.
In light of this, the Wilderness Society has called on Australia’s offshore oil and gas authority, National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), to reject BP’s application to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.