Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
Casual workers taken off Ichthys offshore facilities by Inpex will be paid at least until next week under a standby deal similar to workers from the troubled Prelude LNG vessel.
Chevron is preparing to shed about 400 employees from its WA business, just months after approving a new construction project and backing an LNG jobs initiative.
