There is increasing unrest among coastal communities about the proliferation of offshore gas projects and how they’re being managed.
Apollo Bay locals cite a gas project proponent trying to talk with the seafood industry through a fish and chip shop in town as an example.
“We suffer from consultation fatigue over time and then they throw curve balls like that at us where they rock up and wanna’ quote, unquote, talk to fishermen…and then they say oh, we tried,” chair of the Apollo Bay fisher’s co-op Markus Nolle said.
There’s at least three large-scale gas projects in various stages of planning in the Otway Basin, various others are up and producing or in the stages of getting to that point. Project proponents are required to speak with local communities likely to be affected by the seismic blasting, drilling, pipe laying, environmental incursions and other activities. It’s a chance to inform people of what to expect, but also to hear what their concerns might be so plans may be amended to accommodate the feedback.
“They proudly walk around going ‘oh we meet all our regulatory obligations’…well on paper technically you can, but are you doing the right thing? No,” Mr Nolle said.
He says not every company behaves this way, citing Origin Energy as one example where the company booked meetings with various groups and sectors to discuss operations in the region.
“When you have vertically integrated companies, like Origin Energy and the likes who have a retail presence, when they are doing things they have to be mindful of their social licence.”
He says the result is they take consultation more seriously, whereas other operators like multi-national oil and gas giants like TGS and Schlumberger don’t. It’s the latter companies and their proposal to undertake one the largest 3D seismic gas mapping projects in the world out in the Otway Basin that has people along the coast particularly tuned in.
“They don’t care about social license…all they wanna’ do is just get in, get the approvals they need to do this work, as quickly as possible, and get the hell out of there,” Mr Nolle said.
Over 30,000 people made submissions to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA) about the proposal, the vast majority opposed.
Few other projects have attracted such attention, but NOPSEMA declined to speak on the issue or that of consultation, and federal Resources Minister Madeleine King has refused several interview requests.
“They are hopeless, absolutely hopeless,” Markus Nolle says.
“The proponent is in charge of consultation…they get to decide who so-called impacted parties are.
“They get to decide who they engage with…what issues are of consequence…and they report all that to NOPSEMA.”
He and others like the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) say the regime is flawed, one where impacted communities get 30 days to respond to hugely complex Environment Plans thousands of pages long about any concerns or questions they have about a project.
Conservation groups say a recent Federal Court ruling exposed problems in the sector, after Woodside Energy’s plans for its massive Scarborough Gas Project off the north-west coast of Western Australia was effectively halted.
The court determined that NOPSEMA’S approval for seismic blasting to be carried out in the region was invalid, due to insufficient consultation with First Nations traditional owner, Raelene Cooper.
Justice Colvin found the regulator had erred because the consultation should have been carried out before the approval was granted and set aside NOPSEMA’S decision.
Louise Morris from the AMCS says the finding has implications for numerous projects in the Otway Basin.
“A lot of working examples we can point to across the two seismic proposals and the plans to test drill for gas off the Victorian and Tasmanian coast,” she said.
“We’ve been aghast at what is considered appropriate consultation.”
Ms Morris says examples such as that given by Mr Nolle about consulting with the seafood industry through a fish and chip shop are a classic example, but there are others and she’s been working with community groups helping them submit their concerns to NOPSEMA.
“Including companies just not turning up for arranged meetings on Zoom…that was TGS.
“It’s cowboy country…so loose, so untransparent, so hard to engage with.”
