Canadian firm Vermilion judged the chance of the December spill as "rare" - the same probability it claims for seven planned exploration wells that could affect anywhere along the Pilbara coast.
Chief executive Bill Oplinger told Wall Street the miner had responded to all 60,000 comments on its WA expansion plans—in fact, it responded to fewer than 10, and some were unacceptable.
The WA government will soon decide whether Black Mountain Energy can frack 20 wells near the Kimberley's Fitzroy River, but promised measures to protect the environment and the rights of local people are not yet in place.
Most gas in Western Australia is produced offshore and exported as LNG, with some reserved for domestic use. Production from the onshore Perth Basin is increasing. WA is the most gas-dependent state in Australia.
It has been a long, convoluted journey for Canadian company ATCO to own Perth’s gas distribution network, build dongas in Kwinana and research solar-generated hydrogen.
Buck-passing between oil giants over who pays for the upkeep of the ageing North West Shelf LNG plant has emerged as the biggest hurdle to Woodside sending its Browse gas to the facility.
From the outset, Norway planned to maximise the long term benefit it gained from its oil and gas, unlike Australian politicians who are content with crumbs from the table.
Woodside is confident it will not have to pipe gas to WA from its giant Pluto project despite the company’s five-year reprieve from the State’s domestic gas policy ending in May 2017.
