CANBERRA: Five years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill poured millions of barrels of crude into the sea, BP Plc is being challenged over its hunt for oil in the pristine waters off southern Australia.
Just over a year before the UK-based company has said it expects to start drilling, environmentalists say the company hasn’t yet disclosed its full emergency-response plans for a potential spill in the Great Australian Bight, home to about 18 threatened species from whales to turtles.
BP’s initial models showing a less than 10 per cent chance that a worst-case incident would lead to oil threatening areas where whales are likely to feed. It’s clear the project will face significant scrutiny before drilling begins.
“The Gulf of Mexico scenario was an absolute disaster, but the stakes are much higher out here,” said Peter Owen, the Wilderness Society’s South Australia director. “This is an undeveloped, non-industrialised part of the world, and the risks are high. It’s very deep, very rough and very remote.”
BP said that it has “the technological capability and expertise to safely explore the Great Australian Bight,” according to an e-mailed statement. The company had initially planned to begin drilling in early 2016 and pushed that out because of potential delays with the rig.
More than 85 per cent of species in the Bight aren’t found anywhere else, according to Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation. Species in the Bight include the southern right, sperm and blue whales as well as sea lions and sharks.
BP estimated last year it would spend more than A$1 billion (US$785 million) to drill 400 km west of Port Lincoln, in a region it describes as “pretty much the last big unexplored basin in the whole world.” About 250 km to the north, endangered southern right whales gather to give birth, drawing visitors to cliff-top lookouts on the nearby coast.
BP is working with Statoil ASA and plans to drill in waters as deep as 2,500 metres. The Bight is a “hostile” place to work, according to BP’s website. Waves that reach 10 meters in height are comparable to conditions in the North Sea, and will happen more often.
They aren’t the only companies planning to drill in the Bight. Chevron Corp won acreage in the region in 2013 and proposed spending almost A$500 million. Murphy Oil Corp and Santos Ltd also have permits to explore.
The Bight has the potential for a string of discoveries of about 100 million barrels of oil, said Barry Goldstein, executive director of energy resources for South Australia’s state government.”It’s got to be elephant-hunting country,” he said, using the term often used for discoveries with at least half a billion barrels of oil.
