Two Greenpeace activists were arrested in Australia after they caused a halt in operations at Woodside Energy’s Scarborough LNG platform, off the coast of Western Australia. The two were charged with “interfering with offshore petroleum installations or operations”, the local authorities said in a statement as cited by ABC. The maximum penalty for that charge is 10 years in prison.
The two activists boarded the platform on Saturday and spent the night there, Reuters reported, citing a Greenpeace statement that the activists would “occupy the platform for as long as possible” in expression of protest against a new project led by Woodside that, according to the group, would damage a coral reef system that is inhabited by an endangered species of whale. The company disagrees, saying there will be no contact between its production facilities and the coral ecosystem.
The Browse project is estimated to cost around $34 billion to develop, tapping into the largest undeveloped natural gas deposit in Australia, according to ABC.
The Scarborough LNG facility is 98% complete. With a price tag of $12.5 billion, the facility is planned to produce some 8 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually, plus 6 million cum of natural gas, to be supplied to the domestic market. Per schedule, Scarborough was supposed to go into operation before the end of this year, but the two activists’ actions this last weekend may prompt a postponement, based on Woodside’s comments on the events and the fact that operations at the facility remained on pause.
“Greenpeace’s actions have triggered a significant, potentially costly and entirely avoidable response, requiring Western Australian resources to be mobilised to manage the safety, security and operational consequences of their actions. Contrary to Greenpeace’s claimed mission, the behaviour of its representatives… has endangered the surrounding environment, in addition to people and the facility itself,” a spokesperson for the energy major told Upstream.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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