‘See you in Court’: Call on North West shelf draws disparate takes from green groups and industry backers

The oil and gas industry says the decision to keep Woodside Energy’s LNG plant on the Burrup Peninsula until 2070 proves there is appreciation for gas as a transition fuel, while conservationists have blasted Labor’s verdict as “deeply disappointing”. Woodside welcomed the decision by the Federal Government and confirmed it had received the proposed conditions relating to cultural heritage and emissions management for the North West Shelf. The company said it was working through to “understand their application”. “This nationally significant infrastructure has supplied reliable and affordable energy to Western Australia for 40 years and will be able to continue its contribution to energy security,” Woodside executive Vice President Liz Westcott said. Australia’s recently appointed Environment Minister Murray Watt on Wednesday granted Woodside permission to keep running Australia’s largest liquefied natural gas processing plant for another 50 years. The oil and gas business now has 10 days to decide whether it accepts the conditions which have not yet been made public but are “particularly relating to the impact of air emissions levels from the operation of an expanded on-shore Karratha gas plant,” Senator Watt said. Australian Energy Producers chief Samantha McCulloch said the approval was “certainly welcome” and proof there had been “a shift in understanding and appreciation” of gas “at all levels of government”. Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief Peter Cock said the Federal Government’s call was “ultimately the right one” but argued six years was an unacceptable time for a project of such scale to be in limbo. “The companies that back major projects like this need certainty. It is simply not rigorous or efficient to have State and Federal approvals for projects like this duplicated and running on different timelines,” he said. Supermajor Shell, which owns nearly 17 per cent of the North West Shelf, welcomed the verdict. “The proposed approval provides much needed certainty for ongoing operations. . . We appreciate the decision being made within the committed timeframe.” Woodside first lodged approvals to extend the life of the operation in 2018 in a lengthy process complicated by several legal challenges, backlogged State approvals systems, the complexity and emissions of the project and Woodside pausing progress during the pandemic. Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper, who was previously chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and is opposed to the extension, kept her response brief. “See you in Court,” she said in a statement. A report released less than a week ago by Curtin University and WSP warned nearby Murujuga rock art believed to be thousands of years old had likely been impacted by historical emissions, but claimed the gas plant’s emissions could be kept to a level that would protect the art going forward. Ms Cooper has nonetheless been calling on Senator Watt to review a Section 10 Indigenous heritage application about the rock art before deciding on the Karratha plant’s future. The Senator said the impact of air emissions on the rock art had been considered as part of the assessment process. “I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central to my proposed decision,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. Conversation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said Labor had been elected with a mandate to take action on climate and that its decision to back the project was “deeply disappointing”. “They cannot keep approving polluting projects for the benefit of shareholders and pretend they are serious about taking action on climate and the environment,” he said. WA Greens Climate Change Spokesperson Sophie McNeill claimed Labor was ignoring “traditional custodians, scientists, independent experts and the communities they were elected to represent”. WA’s DomGas Alliance, which represents the interests of Alcoa of Australia, Coogee Chemicals and Wesfarmers Chemicals, said it wanted to see the benefit of the extension flow through to the State instead of offshore. “Gas producers have a responsibility to earn and maintain a social licence to operate. Woodside must honour its obligations and ensure the benefits of WA’s gas reserves stay in WA,” Alliance spokesperson Richard Harris said. Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said Minister Watt’s decision “correctly prioritised” keeping well-paid union jobs in WA and securing a supply of gas to Western Australians while more renewables projects took shape. “Today’s decision to maintain a stable, operational project employing well over a thousand hydrocarbons workers in well-paid jobs is a victory for common sense and allows our members to continue their important work for years to come,” he said. Fortescue Metals chief executive Dino Otranto argued the idea Australia could lock in fossil fuel projects until 2070 while claiming progress towards net zero was concerning. “The extension of the North West Shelf cements decades of continued fossil fuel dependence at a time when we should be accelerating towards real zero emissions,” he said. “Extending high-emitting projects like the North West Shelf is not a credible long-term climate solution – it’s a step backward.”