7 days ago
Woodside celebrates but environmentalists devastated
Sabra Lane: The new Federal Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has given preliminary approval to extend Woodside Energy's northwest shelf operations by 40 years. Woodside's welcomed it as delivering certainty. It now has 10 days to respond to the strict conditions the Minister's applied to the liquid natural gas plant. Indigenous custodians and environmentalists, though, are devastated by the decision. Annie Guest reports.
Annie Guest: Woodside Energy has spent seven years securing an extension beyond 2030 and CEO Meg O'Neill has welcomed the green light.
Meg O'Neill: I'm really delighted that we have received the Minister's proposed approval for the northwest shelf life extension. This decision has been a long time in the coming.
Annie Guest: The $34 billion northwest shelf project extracts gas off the Pilbara coast and processes it at an onshore plant covering 200 hectares not far from Aboriginal rock art on the Burrup Peninsula. The approval came shortly after UNESCO flagged it would reject a bid for World Heritage listing for the Burrup Peninsula, citing concerns about emissions degrading the Aboriginal rock carvings. Ngarluma Yinjibarndi woman, Kaylene Daniel, is a traditional custodian.
Kaylene Daniel: I'm feeling sad. Everything that we've all been going through, my family, the five language groups, it has been a long fight for us to do this. World Heritage listing is what we want and need. We don't need this extension. We don't want this, please.
Annie Guest: The Mayor of Karratha, Daniel Scott, is also concerned about World Heritage listing for the rock art and implications for tourism. But with 300 of Woodside's employees living locally, he says there's also an upside.
Daniel Scott: It's good news on one front. It's security for the people here that are directly employed by Woodside and the businesses that are directly impacted and have their services and income from Woodside.
Annie Guest: But environmentalists describe extending the gas operation as terrible for marine life and reefs and disastrous for the climate. WA farmer Simon Wallwork is the chair of AgZero 2030.
Simon Wallwork: Yeah, I'm really disappointed regarding this decision. It's the cost to agriculture hasn't been factored in. It's a very large amount of greenhouse gas emissions and that will have a cost on agriculture, particularly in the South West Land Division of Western Australia, where we've already lost significant rainfall and we're experiencing higher temperatures.
Annie Guest: Amid concerns about electricity price rises and warnings of domestic shortfalls, Woodside is under pressure to sell 15 per cent of gas locally.
Sabra Lane: Annie Guest and Angus Randall reporting there.
