An expert, independent of government and industry, explains how prolonged industrial activity on the Burrup Peninsula in WA endangers an Australian marvel.
Northern Oil and Gas Australia bought the Northern Endeavour floating oil production vessel in the Timor Sea from Woodside in 2016 and went into liquidation in early 2020.
The Federal Government is now decommissioning the project, financed by a levy on offshore oil and gas production.
If Woodside absorbs BHP's oil & gas assets new laws ensure the massive decommissioning liability falls to one of the companies, not the Australian taxpayer, unlike the Northern Endeavour.
Australia's oil and gas industry has lost the fight not to bear the full cost of cleaning up after an oil vessel in the Timor Sea with a bankrupt owner.
For every dollar Woodside saved in 2015 selling the Northern Endeavour, the oil and gas industry may have to pay back threefold after the Federal Government moved to protect ordinary taxpayers from the cost of decommissioning the vessel and oil field.
Regulator NOPSEMA has wrested control of the schedule for cleaning up Australia's offshore oil and gas fields from tight-fisted operators in a move that may result in an offshore jobs boom later this decade.
While Australia's offshore oil and gas industry grew safety regulator NOPSEMA was troubled by cost-cutting operators, old wells to clean up and dealing with COVID-19.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt warned ExxonMobil ceo Darren Woods he would tighten rules for selling offshore oil and gas assets and shortly after the US major canned its Bass Strait exit.
The Government will spend $130 million to look after the Northern Endeavour in 2021 and has the oil and gas industry in its sights for the total bill of more than half a billion dollars.
The Northern Endeavour saga gets murkier: court battles, Cabinet confidentiality, unspecified environmental problems and maybe a hefty bill for big oil and gas.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt plans to stop big oil companies passing on decommissioning liabilities and make them contribute to the Northern Endeavour decommissioning bill.
The Government has 'screwed up' with the Northern Endeavour oil vessel says Sen. Rex Patrick and the loophole that might cost $370 million remains five years after it was spotted.
