Monday, November 26, 2012

Beagle Bay Woodside Water info session.

Eyes On Country reports:

Last week,  the Darkside’s roadshow travelled to Beagle Bay to try and tick another of their consultancy boxes. Spooked, by the fact that many of the grassroots and community people had held their own water info session a few weeks earlier, the darkside sent up some of their local workers to gauge opposition and the day of the info session they were accompanied by their ugly hostile ex-army security force, who hid in their aircon car behind the community shop. 
Beagle Bay people love their church but value their water more.


Water was the agenda and they babbled on about water sustainability, how they believe that there is an endless supply for their needs. As usual they showed many of their unscaled and dubious maps as they tried to convince themselves and those attending that none of their greedy plans would have any impact. Mr Ben Badseed, their environmental advisor also let it slip that once they get their Section 18 they have plans to drill over 30 Water test bores in the sand dunes!!! 


Woodside’s plan is to only use groundwater for the construction period and desalination after that. When questioned about why they need to use high quality drinking water for construction Mr Badseed responded, that it would cost too much to use the deeper Wallal aquifer and that they would never use briny water to hose down what was left of the Monsoon Vine Thickets to try and control dust whilst  they are ploughing up country during construction. Such comfort in their words.

When it was time for questions (only 15 minutes worth because they had jabbered on so long) Mr Albert Wiggan informed them that Beagle Bay has no governance in place and they were not welcome to come and give any more of their presentations until such time that a governing body was in place to properly inform all of the community and outstations. Therefore, Woodside cannot tick their consultation box, or claim that this gathering was a true or proper consultation. Informed consent was not sort nor was it given.

Woodside also tried to distance themselves from was the Department of Water Dampier Peninsula Groundwater Review of which they are a major stakeholder. This review is slush funded by Royalties for Regions to the tune of 2.8 million dollars over 4 years and its purpose is to gain a better understanding of the groundwater because of large knowledge gaps due to lack of bore monitoring and 3000km square of no bores.

Until or if this review is finished (because it needs TO support) no one , least of all Woodside will know for sure whether groundwater dependant ecosystems like the Monsoon Vine thickets, springs, wetlands will be safe if large scale water abstraction takes place. Salt water intrusion is a major concern on the peninsula. Woodside denied that they needed this information to form their water plan and prattled on about the James Price Point (Walmadany) site being a separate impact zone even though the Broome sandstone aquifer sits under the entire peninsulas’ length.
Overall another failed attempt at consultation……

4 comments:

  1. Thankyou for the update

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  2. Premier Colin Barnett has opened a new front in his campaign for a land-based gas hub at James Price Point, warning that rival floating LNG technology proposed by Shell poses greater environmental risks similar to the Gulf of Mexico petroleum spill.

    Despite approval from the State's environmental watchdog this month, green opposition to Woodside's $40 billion Browse gas development near Broome has been fierce. Protesters have been up in arms about issues, including the damage to the coastline near James Price Point and dinosaur footprints as well as potential harm to marine life including transitory whales.

    However, Mr Barnett told _WestBusiness _the plant's opponents were overlooking a far greater risk.

    "People talk about the environment, but I don't think it is safe environmentally to have such a massive offshore production and storage facility for gas and oil," he said.

    "Hopefully it never will but accidents do happen, like the Gulf of Mexico and also Montara."

    Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke signed off this month on Shell's FLNG project for the smaller Prelude field near Browse.

    Shell is said to be pushing its Browse partners to adopt FLNG to cut spiralling costs of the James Price Point proposal.

    Under their retention lease obligations, the joint venture partners must decide by June whether the project is financially viable.

    Earlier this month Shell's director of projects and technology, Matthias Bichsel, rejected suggestions its technology was risky, and said the giant ships could provide a solution to the land-based environmental concerns.

    "FLNG allows you, from an environmental point of view, to produce LNG without disturbing coastlines or building a big facility in some pristine environment," he said.

    Martin Pritchard of Environs Kimberley said yesterday that piping gas to land would still involve the risks of spills from the undersea well heads, as happened in the Gulf of Mexico.

    He said an offshore facility would give more time to stop a condensate spill from spreading along the coast to Broome, unlike at James Price Point

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/15488132/barnetts-browse-warning/

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    Replies
    1. Shell head dismisses floating LNG concerns

      By Kathryn Diss

      Posted 24 minutes ago


      Photo: The floating LNG platform envisaged by Shell. (Shell)


      Map: Broome 6725
      The head of Shell in Australia, Ann Pickard, has dismissed claims that floating liquefied natural gas technology is environmentally unsafe.

      The WA Premier Colin Barnett has expressed concerns about using floating technology to process LNG from the Browse project, north of Broome.

      He says he does not think the technology is safe and has warned of a major oil and gas spill if it is used.

      He remains committed to processing the gas onshore at James Price Point.

      Shell is a partner in the joint venture and is currently developing a floating LNG platform for its Prelude project offshore from Broome.

      The field is considered too far from shore for it to be economically viable to build a pipeline.

      Shell is believed to be pushing its Browse partners to consider the floating technology.

      And, Ms Pickard disagrees with Mr Barnett's claims.

      "It's designed around safety, safety is absolutely paramount, protecting the environment, protecting the people is absolutely paramount in the design, so obviously I disagree," she said.

      "Everything we do is focused on prevention to make sure we can stop anything happening, it's all about prevention.

      "If the risks thing happens then we've got the cap so I don't see a Macondo or Montara happening.

      "You can't ever say never but we sure are focusing on the prevention side."

      A rig operated by TransOcean and drilling for BP in the Macondo field in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in 2010, killing 11 workers and causing a massive offshore oil spill.

      There was also a massive oil and gas leak at the Montara rig in the Timor Sea off the coast of WA in 2009.

      Delete
  3. India goes after oil and gas.

    NEW DELHI: ONGC will invest a staggering 27,800 crore, or $5 billion, for an 8.4 per cent stake in an oilfield in Kazakhstan to give a big boost to India's energy security by partnering global majors in developing the world's biggest oil discovery since 1968

    The company is involved in exploration activities in 15 countries from Vietnam to Venezuela, including stakes in producing fields such as Sakhalin in Russia and the Greater NileBSE -2.50 % Project in Sudan, where output has fallen. It also bought Imperial Energy for $2.1 billion about four years ago, but output from Imperial's assets has fallen sharply

    .......................


    Russia to spend up big on Far Eastern projects.

    The Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom outlined ambitious and costly plans to develop new production and exports hubs in the country’s Far East. Meanwhile, the gas giant has also apparently begun reassessing its ties with Central Asia.

    ..


    The development of the Russian Far East could cost as much as a half of the country’s 11.6trln roubles ($370bn) 2013 budget as the ministry responsible announced its strategy.

    ­In its report to Vnesheconombank the Ministry of the Development of Russian Far East revealed 92 projects for the region costing about 5trln roubles ($159bn), Vedomsti Daily reports. Many of the infrastructure projects are expected to be funded by the lender’s subsidiary “the Fund of the Development of Far Rast and Baikal region”.

    Among the projects are the reconstruction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railway, the construction of a bridge to Sakhalin Island and renovation of the Trans-Siberian mainline. The BAM reconstruction would be the most expensive project costing 1.1trln ($30bn). Goods traffic is planned to be increased to 52mln tones by 2015 from 10mln in 2011.

    ReplyDelete