Wednesday 9th May 2018
Questions by The Greens (WA) in Parliament have confirmed a major breach by the Gorgon Gas Project of its environmental conditions, claimed just last month by the Premier to be ‘the tightest regulations in the world’.
“The Environment Minister has confirmed that in addition to completely failing its promise to inject all, or at least 80 per cent over a five-year average, of its reservoir CO2 emissions from gas processing underground, Chevron is further failing to offset these emissions by other means,” the Greens WA Environment spokesperson Robin Chapple said.
“This is in direct breach of conditions of ministerial approval for the project, which require that should carbon dioxide injection fall significantly below the target level, the Gorgon proponent must find other means to offset the emissions.
“The Minister confirmed that since gas processing began on Barrow Island more than two years ago, not one tonne of reservoir CO2 removed in gas processing has been injected underground. Industry members are not expecting improvement on this any time soon.
“The Minister further revealed that the Government doesn’t know how much reservoir CO2 Gorgon is instead venting directly to the atmosphere. Yet Gorgon’s own estimate in its 2015 greenhouse gas abatement program was that it would be between 5.5 and 7.8 million tonnes of CO2 a year for Gorgon’s first two year of operation – equivalent to total emissions of several coalfired power stations.
“The Barnett Government, aided by the Federal Liberals helped create the mess but the ALP has been in power over a year and it is time they enacted clear promises made in their 2017 election platform document to tighten up reporting, transparency and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions by WA’s worst polluters.
“Gorgon, largely owned by Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, is easily WA’s biggest polluter and despite the Premier’s fanciful statement, the strongest contender for the least regulated.
“The Greens ask the McGowan Government to simply enforce the environmental conditions that even a former Liberal State Government considered appropriate to impose on Gorgon in 2009 – that is, for Chevron to offset the emissions that it fails to inject underground.”
- Ministerial Statement No 800, Condition 26.2, requires the Gorgon partners to ensure that an average of at least 80 per cent of CO2 extracted from gas reservoirs over any five-year period is injected underground.
- Should injection fail to occur (as has been the case since operations began in March 2016) Schedule 3 requires: “the Proponent shall report on: a) measures that could be implemented that would ensure that target level set in Condition 26.2 is met or, if injection is not considered feasible for all or some of the gas, measures to otherwise offset; and b) which if any of these measures the Proponent intends to implement”.
- Refer: http://www.epa.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/Ministerial_Statement/00800.pdf
Media contact: Liam Carter – 0449 151 490
