INPEX has spilled oil into Darwin Harbour, exposed offshore workers to dangerous mercury, and been prosecuted for under-reporting toxic emissions by more than 100-fold, all in the past 12 months.
A letter from the US miner raised hope that the jarrah forest inland from Perth would escape its strip mining for bauxite, but Alcoa is keeping its options open.
Oil production in WA comes from condensate produced with gas for LNG plants, dedicated production vessels and until 2025, onshore wells on Barrow Island.
The failure of Cliff Head's owners, Pilot Energy and Triangle Energy, to meet payroll does not bode well for their ability to pay the $200 million decommissioning cost.
Pilot Energy and Triangle Energy - two listed minnows with no revenue - may struggle to afford to decommission the Cliff Head platform off the WA coast.
No profit, falling production, inadequate maintenance, a safety plan in limbo and a big clean-up if exploration fails: challenges aplenty at the Canadian company's only offshore facility.
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.
Plans by Santos, which negligently caused an oil spill off WA four years ago, to drill seven exploration wells off the Pilbara coast have drawn fire from an environmental group.
NOPSEMA has ordered Jadestone to urgently address corrosion on its aged Montara Venture oil vessel in the Timor Sea, which "may pose significant safety and environmental risks."
The $2.3 billion-plus decommissioning on a WA nature reserve will be part-funded by the Federal and WA governments returning about half the royalties they received over six decades.
