John Englart

Resources Minister approves new offshore oil and gas exploration and 10 exploration permits for carbon dumping

Federal Minister for Resources The Hon Madeleine King MP approved new offshore oil and gas exploration permits for Esso and Beach Energy in the Otway and Sorrell Basins in Victoria, and Exploration permits finalised for Chevron, INPEX, Melbana and Woodside Energy on Australia’s west coast.

There were also 10 exploration permits issued for offshore sea carbon dumping, or carbon capture and storage.

The science is clear: we need no new oil and gas projects to meet the Paris Agreement Climate Targets. Most of Australia’s gas is exported as LNG to a global market already showing signs of a glut. LNG exported to Japan is now being resold to Asia along with subsidies for gas infrastructure.

Opening new gas projects, even for domestic use, allows the gas companies to export more gas from their other fields.

The International Energy Agency also warned that opportunity for carbon capture and storage is limited and highlighted that this technology should not be relied upon to justify new fossil fuel projects.

The IEA report on The Oil and Gas Industry in Net Zero Transitions is worth while reading and taking note of in regards to fossil fuel production, energy transition and Carbon Capture Utilisation and storage.

See our blogpost: The scam of Carbon Capture and Storage: 5 video explainers.

One small consolation is that the Minister forbade any further seismic blasting for these permits, which impacts marine species and ecosystems. Seismic blasting will not be permitted under these exploration permits.

There will be no new seismic surveying permitted to occur as part of the approved work program for each permit. Companies will instead be required to licence or reprocess existing seismic data.

These are exploration permits. They do not automatically allow new offshore gas production to occur. For production approval, safety and environmental approvals are required through National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).

But NOPSEMA state that climate impact will be ignored for consideration as part of any submission objecting to a project on environmental grounds. “Information that is irrelevant to NOPSEMA’s decision making criteria cannot be considered, examples include: statements of fundamental objection to oil and gas activity“

In June 2024 Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved the 12th Fossil Fuel project since Labor were elected in May 2022. This was the Gina Rhinehart owned Senex’s Atlas Coal Seam Gas project in Queensland.

So which side is Wills Labor MP Peter Khalil on with supporting approval of dirty gas, expanding offshore gas exploration?

Climate Council, Australian Conservation Foundation condemns gas expansion

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said: “Expanding the highly-polluting gas industry is a recipe for climate disaster.

“The burning of gas is supercharging heatwaves, bushfires, flooding and coral bleaching in Australia and around the world.

“While the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals means no new coal, oil or gas, the Albanese government is acting like it has an exemption from the laws of science.

“Saying this gas is for domestic use is no excuse when more than 80% of the gas extracted in Australia is exported, a portion of which could stay in Australia and be used to manage an orderly transition to clean energy.

“Rapidly moving from fossil fuels to renewables is a much better way to secure our energy future than to drill for more climate-heating gas that won’t come online for years.

“The government’s blind faith in carbon capture and storage – a technology that has the primary purpose of extending the life of fossil fuel industries – is extremely worrying.

“Carbon capture and storage is playing a similar role for Labor that nuclear is for the Coalition – it’s the pipe dream that justifies ongoing fossil fuel use.

“Carbon capture and storage is prohibitively expensive and can at best only deal with a tiny proportion of Australia’s climate-heating emissions.

“This announcement rings alarm bells about the government’s Future Made in Australia.

“Is the Future Made in Australia really about helping regions that have long relied on fossil fuels move to clean energy, or is it about replacing coal with gas?

“Switching from one fossil fuel to another is not a clean energy transition.

“ACF urges the Albanese government to stop trying to walk both sides of the street on energy.”

The Climate Council were equally as strident in their comments: Responding to today’s release of exploration licences for gas off the coast of Victoria and Western Australia, Climate Council Head of Policy and Advocacy Dr Jennifer Rayner said:

“Gas exploration has to stop because the extraction and burning of this expensive and polluting fossil fuel has to stop. More gas means more climate pollution harming our kids and more unnatural disasters driving up our costs of living.   

“We are already using less gas in Australia as homes and businesses embrace affordable and reliable clean energy. International demand for gas is forecast to peak before 2030 and sharply decline after that as all countries work to slash climate pollution. We need new policy thinking – including a real domestic gas reservation policy to meet Australia’s small and declining needs – not more gas projects.      

“Industry analysis shows there were already around 230,000 square kilometres of Australia’s seabed under exploration licence in 2022, an area of land more than three times the size of Tasmania. The new licences issued today will add to the massive toll in climate pollution and environmental damage that would come with exploiting all of this acreage.

References:

The Hon Madeleine King MP, Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia, 23 July 2024, Media Release, Finalisation of offshore exploration rounds https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/king/media-releases/finalisation-offshore-exploration-rounds

Australian Conservation Foundation, 23 July 2024, Gas expansion is a recipe for climate disaster https://www.acf.org.au/gas-expansion-a-recipe-for-climate-disaster

Climate Council, 23 July 2024, It’s time to end offshore gas licenses for good, https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/time-to-end-offshore-gas-licenses-for-good/

John Englart, Climate Citizen Blog, 26 November 2023, Review of IEA report on The Oil and Gas Industry in Net Zero Transitions, Momemt of truth for Fossil Fuels: Warning from IEA that Fossil Fuel companies need to transition or die https://takvera.blogspot.com/2023/11/momemt-of-truth-for-fossil-fuels.html

The science on no new fossil fuel extraction and climate targets is very clear. See for example:

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